Sunday, October 29, 2017

Five Frames - 10/29/2017

Five Frames

Images Taken With A Palm Pilot Zire 71 PDA



'My' Old Lady


My Camera is bigger than yours


The Dex at Rest


Monarchs Not Welcome


Bisbee Grafetti
These images and many many more can be found on my Flickr account.

Cinema Cycle - Twilight Man


CINEMA CYCLE
(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

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DATE REVIEWED: 10/27/2017

TITLE:. Twilight Man

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 99 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 22.8 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7840.2 miles

SYNOPSIS: A man is stalked by a malicious hacker.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: How little control we really have over our lives in modern society.

PROS AND CONS:  A real sleeper of a film.  I had never heard of or seen this film before.  Reading the liner notes it appeared interesting, since Dean Stockwell is usually a pleasure to watch.  

This film is dated, since it deals with computers and hacking back in the 1990s.  However, the film does not attempt to go all technical, but sticks to the basic concept of what happens when someone else manipulates YOUR data.  

The film has some flaws and a few scenes really don’t flow.  But if you ever wondered what happened to Tim Matheson (after Animal House), who does a really good job of acting here, and if you want to see a really creepy Dean Stockwell, check this film out.

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

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 Terror


CINEMA CYCLE
(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

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DATE REVIEWED: 10/27/2017

TITLE:. The Terror

FORMAT: VHS

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 80 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 23.6 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7817.4 miles

SYNOPSIS: A Frenchy Lieutenant pursues the dead wife of a reclusive count.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Basic film making in the 1950s.  There were blockbusters put out by major studios and then there were these low budget affairs produced for the drive-in movie crowd.

PROS AND CONS:  The plus is, that you get to see a very young Jack Nicholson and a very old Boris Karloff share a lot of screen time together.  

The minus is, this isn’t a well written film that is slow with very little plot.  One thing that is evident, is the large sound stage that they were able to convert into a gothic castle.  Which is probably the star of the film.  

This is one of the films that is in the public domain, so the quality and visual images are not the best.  What is probably most impressive is the box cover art for the series, which, while impressive, does not do the contents justice.

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

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.

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Cinema Cycle - Joan of Arc


CINEMA CYCLE
(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

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DATE REVIEWED: 10/25/2017

TITLE:. Joan of Arc

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 100 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 23.3 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7793.8 miles

SYNOPSIS: The life and death of Joan of Arc is documented.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: The French have the best looking martyrs.  A strange epic.

PROS AND CONS:  An interesting film, more so for all the wrong reasons.  It is meant to be an epic on par with Gone with the Wind, and was even directed by the same man, Victor Fleming.  

But this comes off almost as a documentary, with a lot of Ingrid Bergman giving loooong impassioned speeches.  And, we sort of know how this all ends.  

That said, the production scale here approaches epic in some scenes, especially with the lavish matte painted scenes.  

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

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.

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Cinema Cycle - Cosmos - Volume 6


CINEMA CYCLE
(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

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DATE REVIEWED: 10/20/2017

TITLE:. Cosmos - Volume 6

FORMAT: VHS

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 123 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 35.8 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7770.5 miles

SYNOPSIS: (from Wikipedia)


10
"The Edge of Forever"
November 30, 1980
Beginning with the origins of the universe in the Big Bang, Sagan describes the formation of different types of galaxies and anomalies such as galactic collisions and quasars. The episode moves further into ideas about the structure of the Universe, such as different dimensions (in the imaginary Flatland and four-dimensional hypercubes), an infinite vs. a finite universe, and the idea of an oscillating Universe (similar to that in Hindu cosmology). The search into other ideas such as dark matter and the multiverse is shown, using tools such as the Very Large Array in New Mexico. Cosmos Update shows new information about the odd, irregular surfaces of galaxies and the Milky Way perhaps being a barred spiral galaxy.
11
"The Persistence of Memory"
December 7, 1980
The idea of intelligence is explored in the concepts of computers (using bits as their basic units of information), whales (in their songs and their disruptions by human activities), DNA, the human brain (the evolution of the brain stem, frontal lobes, neurons, cerebral hemispheres, and corpus callosum under the Triune Brain Model), and man-made structures for collective intelligence (cities, libraries, books, computers, and satellites). The episode ends with speculation on alien intelligence and the information conveyed on the Voyager Golden Record.


CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Still one of the best documentaries ever made.  

PROS AND CONS:  (see ‘Concept In Relation To The Viewer’, above)

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

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.

Friday, October 20, 2017

Cinema Cycle - Loverboy


CINEMA CYCLE
(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

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DATE REVIEWED: 10/20/2017

TITLE:. Loverboy

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 40 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 21.5 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7734.7 miles

SYNOPSIS: A college freshman lands a job as a pizza-delivery / gigolo to make money to return to school and win back his girlfriend.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Young, male, teenage fantasy / farce.  With some really funny moments.

PROS AND CONS:  When I first saw this come up on my playlist I sort of groaned.  1970s comedy tends to be a real narrow genre niche that is usually only entertaining form the historical aspect.

The first side of this film did not disappoint.  It was highly unbelievable, but with a certain amount of production value.  The plot is ludicrous and the acting marginal.

However, by the time I got to the second side of the laserdisc, the film became quite funny.  Some of the scenes are hilarious in a well crafted Keystone Cop sort of way.  At least I laughed a lot.

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

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.

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Cinema Cycle - Il Bidone


CINEMA CYCLE
(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)
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DATE REVIEWED: 10/16/2017

TITLE:. Il Bidone

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 38 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 16.5 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7713.2 miles

SYNOPSIS: Karma finally catches up with an Italian Con Man.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: If we live the life of a sociopath, there eventually comes a time when you can’t turn over a new leaf.

PROS AND CONS:  I am biased about almost anything Fellini did.  Some of his works are not perfect, but all show and insight and a style that is uniquely his own.

This is Italian Neo-Realist cinema, in the same vein as Umberto D. and The Bicycle Thief.  It shows a society in despair where the gritty-ness of post WWII life is counter-positioned with all the expectations and dreams of a better world.  

It is interesting to see Broderick Crawford and Richard Basehart in their younger days before they became better known for their television work.  

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

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.