A Gentle Start for the Week

This card immediately made me think of "Little Women". If you're a guy and haven't read it or even know what it is, it's a book by Louisa May Alcott about four sisters during the Civil War while their father is off fighting and they and their mother and aunt try to keep the household …

How to get the little woman to try sci-fi

Well, I’ll tell ya. I wrote this post at the urging of  a couple of guys who wanted suggestions of books and movies to try to interest their spouses in science fiction. So I thought, ok, it could be that many women have simply not been exposed to it, or are not aware of the …

Finding Portland

I just saw this at Smithsonian Magazine's Web site, and had to share. My beloved Portland captured on film in a zippy 3.54 minutes! "Finding Portland: Where Young People Go To Retire" opens inside a deserted Pioneer Place mall, and shifts around the city showing the bridges, the highway interchanges, Waterfront Park with the cherry …

Now We Are Free

Next on the list of things I'm obsessing about: http://youtu.be/xbHPTPUpQ1I This video pulls together three tracks, "Honor Him", "Elysium" and "Now We Are Free"  from the movie "Gladiator." It's bittersweet, but somehow celebratory. "Gladiator" is one of my favorite movies ever. I would follow Maximus into Hades if he asked. These particular pieces were composed …

Why Don’t Women Like Sci-Fi?

All this brouhaha over "John Carter" being a flop and the reasons for it hit a new low this morning. Here I was, minding my own business, reading my Twitter timeline, when I see a retweet saying "Men are from Mars, and Women are Nowhere in Sight." I had a bad feeling but I went …

Some Love for John Carter

I was distressed to see so much negativity surrounding the movie John Carter, based on the book A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, proclaiming it a weekend flop before the weekend was even over. It opened against some stiff competition (Disney’s new version of The Lorax. Give me strength). Now what in god’s …

Still Hot on the Trail – The Eagle Soundtrack

If you're sick of hearing about my obsession with "The Eagle" feel free to skip this post. This one's about the soundtrack, so if you're a music lover you might be interested. (You knew I wasn't going to let this go, right?) As I mentioned in an earlier post, there's a fantastic Celtic fiddle piece …

Out of the Corner of My Eye

Did you ever have the experience of thinking you see something out of the corner of your eye, but when you turn to look, it’s not there? And yet everytime you look away, you could swear it’s back, just at the edge of your vision, taunting you, daring you to look again and catch it? …

I Wish My Books Could Fly

I'm such a sap. It takes very little for me to turn on the waterworks, and it was nip and tuck at the end. But this is so charming I had to share it. This is up for an Oscar for animated short, and deservedly so. "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore" is …

I’m Not Over You Yet

That’s right, still deep in the throes of my obsession with the movie “The Eagle.” Maybe I shouldn’t admit that publicly, but to hell with the naysayers. This movie got more than it’s fair share of scathing comments on the internet, and while I can see it’s not the greatest thing ever filmed, neither is …