Slices of Life - 6/21/2015

Slices of Life

Random pictures from the week of 06/21/2015.



Only ⅓ of a mile to go (out of 3). On the way to the summit of Carr Peak, Huachuca Mountains. Sony Mavica-CD bracketed images merged in Photomatix.


Hummingbirds by night. Feeder with an evening shower moving in. Lytro Illum Light Field bracketed images, merged in Photomatix.


What happens to old ties after retirement? They become lampshades. In the Man Cave, Sony Mavica-CD bracketed images merged in Photomatix.


Crossing the Finish Line - Bisbee 1000 Stair Climb 2014. Shot with a Bronica ETRS camera shooting expired Ilford FP4+ 120 film. Hand developed, negative scanned, modified in Photoshop.


…..miles to go before I sleep. Hiking through the woods while descending Carr Peak Summit, Huachuca Mountains, Arizona. Sony Mavica-CD bracketed images, merged in Photomatix.


Thread the Needle. Near Lowell Arizona. Lytro Graphite light field image, modified in Lytro Desktop.


Feels like home. Porch of 37D, Bisbee Arizona. Sony Mavica-CD bracketed images, merged in Photomatix.


Mexican Bird of Paradise. Flowers in bloom at the top of Brewery Gulch. Sony Mavica Floppy image, modified in Sketch Guru.

Cinema Cycle - Hollywood Revue of 1929

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE VIEWED: 05/19/2015

TITLE: Hollywood Revue of 1929

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 58 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 28.5 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 2017.9 miles

SYNOPSIS: A collection of vignettes from MGM highlighting their talent and theatrical abilities, including the use of sound and the dawn of technicolor.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Entertainment is evolutionary.  From Greek tragedy, to Ben Hur, to Hot Tub Time Machine, every work builds on what came previously.  That is the case here.  While the entertainment value of this collection is questionable, the historical value is priceless.  

PROS AND CONS: As in other films I have reviewed in this genre, this first of three films in a box set is more fascinating for it’s historical value than its entertainment value.  

Presented here are forms of entertainment not much removed from Vaudeville.  Some of the acts and stars evolved and are still with us today, while others died long ago.  Here we get to see a 20 year old Joan Crawford sharing the stage with Ukulele Ike.

I found two things annoying while watching this film.  The video transfer was not good.  The image on the screen had a portion of the left side of the screen cropped off so I wasn’t getting the proper framing or aspect ratio.  

The second annoyance was the editing between acts.  When an MC ended his introduction and walked off stage, the viewer stares at the curtain for 20 seconds.  Awkward….

To read an overview of this project, check out the initial post for this series.

This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.

Cinema Cycle - War And Peace

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE VIEWED: 06/17/2015

TITLE: War & Peace

FORMAT: VHS

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 6 hours 41 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 81.3 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 1989.4 miles

SYNOPSIS: The lives of aristocratic 19th century Russians during the Napoleonic Wars is documented from 1810 through 1814.  

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: The question of mortality, destiny and eternity set in a vast dreamlike realm of privilege and ceremony.  

PROS AND CONS: Six hours is a long time to watch a film.  But that said, this is the second time that I have watched this film all the way through.  It is an epic film and follows Tolstoy’s masterpiece (which I have also read) very closely.  

This is a large work of grand scale that documents people and times that are far removed from what we understand today.  Russian cinema often has an underlying theme of fatalism and questioning our purpose in life.  This fatalism and searching is the focus of many of the characters in this film.  Sprinkle this narrative with the concept of young men and woman involved in passionate relationships in a society that has very strict codes of conduct and finally throw in Napoleon and you have a lot of stuff going on.  It takes 6 hours just to weave it all together.  

To read an overview of this project, check out the initial post for this series.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.

Cinema Cycle - Shadowlands

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE VIEWED: 6/8/2015

TITLE: Shadowlands

FORMAT: LaserDisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 2 hours 12 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 28.7 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 1908.1 miles

SYNOPSIS: The adult life of the English author C.S. Lewis (The Narnia Books) is chronicled, from his life as an Oxford dean to his eventual widowhood.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: We can’t lock ourselves away and expect that no one will ever hurt us.  Life is all about the pleasure and the pain, you can’t have one without the other.

PROS AND CONS: A good film.  It is engrossing to watch if nothing else than for it’s authentic period piece feel.  The best part of the film for me was being able to stroll the grounds of Oxford in the 1950s.  My god what a gorgeous place.  

That said, the acting was a bit on the reserved side.  Debra Winger never quite clicked as the American divorcee and Hopkins was doing his low key Hannibal Lecter as the repressed dean.

While the movie was interesting and had a very good core plot regarding alienation and taking risks to find ourselves, however the film never quite clicked.  I felt little empathy for either of the main characters and while there is a happy ending, it is a long time in coming.  

To read an overview of this project, check out the initial post for this series.

This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.

Cinema Cycle - Juno and the Paycock

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE VIEWED: 06/06/2015

TITLE: Juno and the Paycock

FORMAT: DVD

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 35 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 21.6 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 1878.5 miles

SYNOPSIS: A lower class English working family deals with money issues against the backdrop of the Irish Revolution in 1930s England.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: The creators of the film were trying to tell a morality tale about social consciousness, hard work and thrift set amongst social turmoil.  

PROS AND CONS: This was an odd film to watch.  Bare in mind that this was done at the end of the silent film era, when sound was still experimental and where thespian acting and dialog were still in use.  

That said, the sound was pretty bad on this release, and the dialog in the film is so heavily laden with British accent and dialect that it is often hard to understand what the actors are saying.  

In the end this is a depressing work that does not connect with the audience by today's standard.  You feel little empathy for anyone in the film.  The film does give a fascinating look into the lifestyle of the British lower class of the time.  

To read an overview of this project, check out the initial post for this series.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.

Cinema Cycle - Evil Toons

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE VIEWED: 06/04/2015

TITLE: Evil Toons

FORMAT: LaserDisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 28 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 20.2 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 1856.9 miles

SYNOPSIS: A book containing drawings of evil demons possesses and kills four scantily clad women in a dark mansion on a stormy night.  (really)

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: If a guy wanted to get lucky with his girl, he would take her to a horror film.  IF a gal wanted to get frisky with her guy, she would take him to a film like this.

PROS AND CONS: This film is so bad, that it is actually good.  It is T&A at its best, where everything is campy and overacted.  

Imagine seeing a raunchy play put on by the drama club in high school.  Only in this play the cheerleaders all take their clothes off.  

I almost have to scratch my head at this film and wonder if the studio that created it was shooting for campy, or where they really trying to make this film suspenseful.

To read an overview of this project, check out the initial post for this series.

This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.

Cinema Cycle - The Wrecking Crew

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE VIEWED: 06/04/2015

TITLE: The Wrecking Crew

FORMAT: Streaming (Google Play)

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 46 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 24.2 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 1836.7 miles

SYNOPSIS: Almost all of the music you listened to in the 60s and 70s was recorded by one group.   

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: When the music business was a ‘business’, these guys were the assembly line.  The ultimate backstage pass.

PROS AND CONS: This is a very good documentary.  It has a few flaws here and there but they are insignificant.  The film is a homage by the filmmaker to his father and the industry that it worked in.  

That industry was being a studio musician in L.A. during the heyday of rock and roll.  I could drop names or give up spoilers about the film, but it is best to watch it cold.  You will be amazed at who made some of the most memorable music of your lifetime.  

To read an overview of this project, check out the initial post for this series.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.

Mystery Media Theater 2015 (update)

My Own Private Movie Heaven/Hell

So, as I am sure that most of you have been following along on my merry journey through celluloid land, this will come as knowledge that you already possess.  But for those that have not (for shame!), here is the link to catch up on all the good stuff that you have been missing.

(The Excel Random Number Generator Gods Are Laughing Right Now.)

I honestly can’t remember how this whole thing stated.  It probably came about as I was looking over my media collection while sipping on a Martini.  “What am I going to do with all this content?”, I must have been asking myself.  That is when the heavens opened and I saw the light.  The almighty spirit had challenged me.  

I have all of my media cataloged on a spreadsheet program, it was just a few simple steps to add some basic programming to manipulate the data.  The end result is a spreadsheet that randomly spits out six films from my collection.  So I never know what I am going to get when I ask it what to watch.  The goal being, I am required to watch the films while riding a stationary recumbent cycle.  It isn’t the movies that are important, it is the number of miles I rack up while watching them.  I have set goals for specifics millage totals that I hit.   I am about halfway to the first goal. I have been documenting all the films that I cycle through on my blog called Censored Mind, under the title Cinema Cycle.

(A grind-house T & A movie from the late 1980s, very collectible by some.)

So far, I have been at this for about a year and half.  I have racked up just under 2,000 miles while watching the gamut of media from the 1900s to 2014.  Heady stuff at times, terrible stuff at other times.  Along the way I have experimented with tweaks to the format and tracking.  Recently, I have added in a short video insert containing my commentary on the film to the Cinema Cycle blog.

(“Juno and the Paycock” out of the this collection, Hitchcock….Again?)

So the random function generator in the spreadsheet it designed to pick across the formats of my collection.  LaserDisc / DVD / LaserDisc / VHS / LaserDisc / Streaming is the structure of the list that is generated when I request a new set of media to cycle through.  This most recent list turned out to be a real winner.  

(Shadowlands, the last of the Debra Winger films, she has done little since.)

Sometimes, the media that is selected are titles that I have already seen.  Never the less, I watch them again, often times finding new details that I missed the first time through.  Other times, I get handed titles that I have not seen that I am look forward to seeing.  “Shadowlands” being one of those titles.  

(Bondarchuk’s six hour epic.)

Then, I get titles such as this.  The VHS title for this list is the original “War & Peace”.  Most in the western world have not seen this film.  It was released by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s during the height of the cold war.  The film is six hour long and follows the book almost to the letter.  To say it is a sweeping epic would be an understatement.  I have seen it before and look forward to cycling through it one more time.

(No more silent film, movies to flex Hollywood’s audio abilities during the Great Depression.)

Finally we get the most recent addition to my LaserDisc library.  Three films from the Dawn of Sound in Hollywood.  These three films total almost 6 hours of viewing.  So the end result is a list that is almost 16 hours of film that I am going to have to cycle through.  

It is going to be a long June, 2015.