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Tag Archives: Leonard Wilson
The Shattered Lens Live Tweets The First Day of 2021
Posted on January 1, 2021 by Lisa Marie Bowman
Went through a bottle of wine. Gonna feel this in the morning, I imagine. Going to dream about movies in the meantime. Be safe, take care, Film Twitter is awesome.
— Leonard B. Wilson (@Cavatica) January 1, 2021
Lol, the year just started.
Happy 2021, everyone! However you chose to welcome the new year, I hope you've managed to recover.
The first day of the year and everything's quiet. #photography pic.twitter.com/xu5YIoMEA7
— Erin Nicole (@TakeSumE) January 1, 2021
Today was the first day of the New Year and, for me, it was also a day to start a new list of films. It's something I and a lot of people do every year. We keep a list of every film that we watch and, of course, the idea is to see as many possible. In 2020, I watched 820 films at least once. (Some films, like It's A Wonderful Life, I watched several times but, for list purposes, I only counted the first time.) This year, I'm hoping to watch at least 1,000.
2021 Film Thread:
This is where I'll be listing all of the films that I watch over the year. (Last year, I ended up watching a total of 820 films at least once. I'm hoping to beat that number this year!)
— Lisa Marie Bowman (@LisaMarieBowman) January 1, 2021
2. The Wrong Real Estate Agent (2021) — The first Lifetime film of the year. (Watching on Lifetime Movie Network) pic.twitter.com/9Mo4YWLsSo
3. Thank God It's Friday (1978) — Disco! (Watching on Prime with #FridayNightFlix) pic.twitter.com/mL5OnFr6NU
I watched Thank God It's Friday as a part of #FridayNightFlix, which is a weekly live tweet that I host. Every Friday, at 10 pm et, we watch a movie. So far, we've watched Starcrash, Ator, Split Image, Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny, Robot Monster, and now Thank God It's Friday. If you're reading this and you're on twitter, consider yourself invited to next Friday's film.
Jeff Goldblum just bring such a charge of weirdness to his role that it kind of makes the whole movie (along with "Last Dance," of course.) #FridayNightFlix
Dave dropped acid once and now he thinks he's Steve Guttenberg. #FridayNightFlix
— Socially Distant Jeff (@JedadiahLeland) January 2, 2021
TY @ladymicaela @JedadiahLeland @johnny_williams @Betterduck @moodstability @ChipMayhugh @cinematicenthus and any and all lurkers for watching tonight's #FridayNightFlix with me!
As always, the work here at the TSL Bunker is never done.
"I asked for a mission.
And for my sins, they gave me one."
Now watching: Cannonball Run II pic.twitter.com/Fdy5GHgtEx
The government sent me $600 of my own money and I just wrote 1,000 words on Cannonball Run II. That's my 2021 so far.
Before jumping into Cobra Kai s3, I have to rewatch the big fight at the end of S2. That was awesome.
Still, for the most part, the first day of 2021 was a rather mellow and peaceful one and, after 2020, I don't think anyone can complain about that. One thing about almost everything being on hold right now is that it gives us a chance to reflect and think about both the past and the future. For instance, I spent a good deal of today staring at my film collection and realizing that I need to spend this entire year watching every piece of physical media that I own, if just to make sure that they all still work. So, you can consider that one of my resolutions for 2021. I will sit down and watch all of the movies that I own. And maybe I'll even review them!
I wasn't the only one making resolutions around here, of course. Patrick also set himself up for a challenge:
I know it seems I set my reading goal on @goodreads low this year, at only 3 books. I will actually read 45-50 books. But the goal I set is to entirely read "Moby Dick" , the KJV of "The Bible" and "Don Quixote" We'll see if I can hold up to that challenge!
— Patrick Smith 📺📖🎧📎 (@theClurichaun) January 1, 2021
That was pretty much it for today. I watched some movies. I listened to some music. And I made some last-minute resolutions for the new year. It was a quiet day but it was a good day. I can't complain about that. Instead, we can all sing along:
Happy 2021! Here's some music to get your year started: https://t.co/VXBQIqdFYt
— Lisa Marie Bowman Watches Stuff (@LisaMBowman1) January 1, 2021
Have a good year everyone. Keep reading. Keep listening to music. And as always, keep watching, talking, debating, discussing, and making your opinions known! Let's make 2021 a year to be remembered!
Posted in Live Tweets | Tagged Case Wright, Dazzling Erin, Erin Nicole, Jedadiah Leland, Leonard Wilson, Lisa Marie Bowman, New Year's Day, Patrick Smith | 1 Comment
The Shattered Lens Live Tweets Christmas
Posted on December 25, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman
Let's try that again — MERRY CHRISTMAS! https://t.co/tDza5NhV3R
— Erin Nicole (@TakeSumE) December 25, 2020
Today was Christmas and, as you can see, even the TSL cats got into it:
Merry Christmas to all the kitties out there!
— Doc Bowman (@Doc_Bowman) December 25, 2020
Merry Christmas, @EpochTheCat!
meow sompthin on floor i must inbestigat i sur not santa 🎅 bisit me i on noty list meow pic.twitter.com/dgt8JUVBva
— Epoch The Cat (@EpochTheCat) December 25, 2020
This year, Christmas was, for many of us, a bit more low-key than usual. That's understandable, of course. For instance, I'm used to having a big family gathering for Christmas. Usually, on this day, I would be catching up with aunts and uncles and cousins from all over the country. The morning would be spent at one house and the afternoon at another and the evening and yet another. That didn't happen this year, for obvious reasons. That said, my sisters and I were still able to keep a few our traditions alive.
For instance, I kept alive the tradition of waking up early and then wondering why everyone else was still asleep:
Every Christmas, I wake up early and then impatiently tap my foot until everyone else wakes up.
— Lisa Marie Bowman (@LisaMarieBowman) December 25, 2020
When I was like really little, I used to dance around the house and sing, "It's Christmas!" every Christmas morning, just to wake everyone up. Might start doing that again.
Every year, I make it a point to go for a drive on Christmas Day. It may sound like a minor thing but it's something that I always look forward to.
I love driving on Christmas. There's like no one else on the road so you can ignore all the traffic laws. It's great.
And finally, there were the most important traditions. Like this one about watching certain movies over the course of the day. I'm happy to say that I not only watched A Christmas Story this morning (before we even unwrapped presents, if you need an example of just how early I woke up compared to everyone else) but that it was also the 800th films that I've watched this year.
800. A Christmas Story (1983) — It's Christmas! (Watching on TNT) pic.twitter.com/fTsJVKqqNo
After A Christmas Story, it was time to rewatch It's A Wonderful Life on E! I also watched the 1983 Tom Cruise football film, All The Right Moves before joining my family in observing one of the greatest of all Christmas traditions:
Presents have been opened. Dinner has been eaten. Mass has been attended. There's just one more Christmas tradition left to observe …. DIE HARD!
I think one of the main reasons why Die Hard holds up so well is because John McClane isn't some sort of super human action hero. He's not Schwarzenegger or Stallone. When he's in danger, it feels real.
I will say this — I do think that if McClane hadn't been able to make the party, Harry Ellis would have eventually stepped up and saved the day. #DieHard pic.twitter.com/LxWyn3U38a
Everyone celebrated Christmas in their own way. Here's a few thoughts from the TSL crew:
It's…almost… a #SnowyChristmas here…we just didn't believe hard enough! ❄❄⛄ https://t.co/6DIxHK5Va3
— Patrick Smith 📺📖🎧📎 (@theClurichaun) December 25, 2020
Best Xmas present ever!! pic.twitter.com/EIJ3Q0fu2I
— Case Wright (@casewrites) December 25, 2020
Wrapped up everything Christmas related (opening gifts, dinner) by Noon. Family's retired to their respective areas for sleep/unwinding. Giving Anna a watch. Wow, this girl does some serious damage with a set of dinner plates.
— Leonard B. Wilson (@Cavatica) December 25, 2020
Although there's only about a 5 minute difference between WW84 and Tenet, WW84 felt really long to me. Enjoyed it, though. Wiig surprised me. Haven't seen that side of her acting since The Skeleton Twins.
When you mention Boxing Day in America, people think you're celebrating this. pic.twitter.com/9ZXrscSgTB
— Socially Distant Jeff (@JedadiahLeland) December 26, 2020
To be honest, that's what I always thought Boxing Day was but apparently, it's a shopping holiday. That's pretty nice since I was already planning on shopping tomorrow anyways.
Anyway, Happy Holidays, everyone! I hope it was a good one without any fear. Another year over and a new one just begun.
Posted in Live Tweets | Tagged Case Wright, christmas, Dazzling Erin, Doc Bowman, Epoch the Cat, Jedadiah Leland, Leonard Wilson, Lisa Marie Bowman, Patrick Smith | 1 Comment
The Shattered Lens Live Tweets Christmas Eve
Not getting excited for the holidays is like totally lame and real melvin.
Happy Christmas Eve, everyone!
It's been a relatively quiet Christmas Eve down here at the TSL Offices. We've wished each other a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday.
Happy Holidays! I hope everyone has a good Christmas.
We've definitely devoted some time to trying to keep up with what's going on with Santa and his trip around the world.
The Citizen app is catching reports of a flying sleigh with what looks like reindeer. Wild night tonight.
There was a brief moment of panic when it appeared that Santa may have disappeared. I wondered if maybe he had been called away to once again conquer the Martians.
Mars, after the Santa Conquest. pic.twitter.com/G7aBhcOgVL
Just checked with NORAD. Santa is still missing but their best bunny is on the case. pic.twitter.com/Cw4EncrLnl
Fortunately, we eventually found him on a beach in Florida and sent the Ice Cream Bunny out to get things moving again.
Resolutions were made:
Like cats and dogs living together crazy.
My attitude for the rest of 2020: pic.twitter.com/GcBidrN1z2
Scheduled my next platelets donation with @BloodworksNW!!! This Christmas, give the gift of life! #Giveblood Eventually, they'll even give you these fancy pins! #Fancy pic.twitter.com/Hyx6OeeUGj
Treats were considered:
Haven't had a sugar cookie in ages… now a good sugar cookie is crack!
— D. Lowest Lamé (@TheVonGlum) December 24, 2020
Nostalgia was indulged:
Sometimes, I get nostalgic for how excited I used to get over the trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron. Silly it may seem now but, back in 2015, I'd hear James Spader going, "I'm going to show you something beautiful," and it was like, "This is going to be coolest movie ever!"
And, in the end, we watched a lot of movies. Myself, for instance, I watched Less Than Zero, Elf, Miracle on 34th Street, and It's A Wonderful Life today. I've still got the first two Die Hards and A Christmas Story to look forward to. That'll be after midnight mass, of course.
It's a Wonderful Life is a film that I could watch a thousand times. I've got the entire film memorized, more or less. But every time I watch it, it's like the first time all over again. #ItsAWonderfulLife
I like to think that every Christmas Eve, Jimmy Stewart and Harvey are somewhere, watching #ItsAWonderfulLife. pic.twitter.com/1Lo7UgPvt5
And finally, as he does every year, Patrick helped bring this Christmas Eve to a perfect close by sharing the Night Before Christmas.
It's 10pm on #ChristmasEve 🎄 so gather around your hearths everyone while I read you a #Christmas story! This has become an annual tradition and I'm so grateful for the ones that joins in with me! #AVisitFromStNick By Clement Clarke Moore:
Here's hoping that everyone has a good holiday tomorrow! Thanks for reading and we look forward to ringing in the new year with you!
Posted in Live Tweets | Tagged Case Wright, Christmas Eve, Dazzling Erin, Jedadiah Leland, Leonard Wilson, Lisa Marie Bowman, Live Tweet, Patrick Smith, Viktor Von Glum | 1 Comment
The Shattered Lens Live Tweets Thanksgiving
Posted on November 26, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman
Well, another Thanksgiving is coming to an end.
Needless to say, with everything going on in the world, this Thanksgiving is a bit different than what I'm used to.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This is the first year that I can remember when all the Bowmans and all the Marchis are not going to be gathered in one place for the holiday. Kind of sad about that but oh well. Going to try to be positive today!
— Lisa Marie Bowman (@LisaMarieBowman) November 26, 2020
The big Thanksgiving meal, I care less about. I hate turkey, for instance. I once dropped a big frozen turkey on my foot and couldn't walk for like two days.
With all that in mind, though, the TSL crew had an active Thanksgiving. Here's a few highlights of our day:
It's literally raining ☔ on the parade, why not 2020 rain on everything! But, this is one of my 🦃day traditions! Love the #MacysThanksgivingParade #MacysParade #ThanksgivingParade
— Patrick Smith 📺📖🎧📎 (@theClurichaun) November 26, 2020
Going to tell my children that this was the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. pic.twitter.com/kYfNJ9u47b
Thank you #MacysParade #MacysThanksgivingParade for giving a glimpse, although it was short, to the #LGBTQ+ community! 🏳🌈
Love the Indigenous People being represented! That was special! #MacysParade #MacysThanksgivingParade Now we cut to White Guys trying to sing reggae
Can't have the Thanksgiving Parade without Al Roker fighting off the Butter guy. 🙂 Hope everyone is having a Safe and Happy Thanksgiving!
— Leonard B. Wilson (@Cavatica) November 26, 2020
Bagpipes can be heard from up to 10 miles away?! Nice. Go on with your bad selves, FDNY. #MacysParade
Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy the toast and popcorn! pic.twitter.com/ibk15KBDDr
— Erin Nicole (@TakeSumE) November 26, 2020
Happy Thanksgiving to all the members of the #LateNightMovie Gang! Today we are thankful for all of you! pic.twitter.com/fIBG8kx3Nz
— LNM Gang (@LNMGang) November 26, 2020
I got loafs of buns about this, dough, yeast some of them have already risen! https://t.co/CdfF3vldPS
Missing my family today but at least I can look forward to watching two 3-7 teams battle it out for a playoff spot. #Thanksgiving2020 #DallasCowboys #WashingtonFootball
— Socially Distant Jeff (@JedadiahLeland) November 26, 2020
"It's a dark object …. perhaps a sky diver plummeting to Earth from less than 2,000 feet up …. no parachute yet …. they can't be skydivers …. OH MY GOD, THEY'RE TURKEYS!" #ThanksgivingMemories pic.twitter.com/PuiqXdJMd1
This kind of like those warning videos about fireworks that just make you want to go out and buy the biggest rocket you can find. https://t.co/izUQFDdkwA
#ScarySocial Rest in Peace, Daria Nicolodi. We watched Daria in Shock earlier this year. She was a wonderful talent and will be mourned by the entire horror community. pic.twitter.com/xL0AMvuwL6
— Scary Social (@SocialScary) November 26, 2020
Time for Cowboys versus Football Team. #Cowboys #WashingtonFootball
I'm not crying again….😭😭 Thank you for everything, Alex! 💔❤ #WeLoveYouAlex! #Jeopardy https://t.co/jT8Nf9QFpY
I've been kicked out of the kitchen. Lol.
Personally, I would be happy with a Thanksgiving pizza….
Again, there is nothing more exciting than watching two 3-7 teams compete to be the team that sucks slightly less than other team.
This was a pretty good Thanksgiving. Brisket, rolls, baked potato, and pecan pie. All thanks to my amazing sister @TakeSumE.
So, another Thanksgiving comes to a close. Usually, I do a big long list of what I'm thankful for each and very year but this year, I'm just thankful for all of you. 2020 has not gone the way that any of us planned it would. I was certainly expecting the year to be a lot more festive and I think that the rest of this decade probably will be. People have been locked away for too long. I have a feeling that once the pandemic is under control, there's going to be a lot of pent up energy being released.
So, this year, I'm thankful for our readers, our contributors, and just this site in general. TSL has been around for ten years now. We're going to be around for the next ten as well.
So, let's sit back and enjoy the ride, shall we?
Posted in Live Tweets | Tagged Erin Nicole, Jedadiah Leland, Leonard Wilson, Lisa Marie Bowman, LNM Gang, Patrick Smith, Scary Social, Thanksgiving | 1 Comment
Lisa's Editorial Corner: On Tornadoes, Rango, social media, and Charlie Sheen
Well, it had to happen but did it have to happen so soon?
So, here we are. Just two weeks into doing Lisa's Editorial corner and already, I'm worrying that I may have nothing to talk about. Of course, some of that is because I'm a little bit preoccupied. Somehow — don't ask how unless you really want the details — I managed to sprain my foot on Saturday morning. I stayed on the couch for the weekend but then, foolishly, I attempted to both work and dance on Monday. So, right now, I am home, my foot hurts, and I'm having a hard time focusing on anything else.
(At the same time, I've lost track of how many times I've sprained my foot and/or my ankle. It sucks right now but I'll be okay soon. I'm taking off work on Tuesday, which means that I'll get to make even more progress in cleaning out the DVR!)
Plus, as I write this at 1:30 in the morning, we are currently under tornado watch! If a tornado does decide to show up, I am not looking to forward to having to hop my way into the downstairs coat closet. They say that, if you don't have a storm bunker like the one Michael Shannon installed in Take Shelter, the downstairs closet is the safest place to get in case of a tornado. I have never understood why.
This is why I sometime hate social media.
Since Monday is always my crazy day, I was not on twitter when the whole "Charlie Sheen Has HIV" story broke. In fact, I didn't know a thing about it until someone mentioned it in passing that night and, at that time, I was so busy trying not faint from the pain of my sprained foot that it really didn't register with me.
So really, it wasn't until I got home, took a handful of Vicodin, and logged onto twitter that I was really aware of what's been going on with Sheen. Apparently, this Tuesday (i.e., today), Sheen is going to be on the Today Show and is going to reveal whether or not he has HIV. There's something really ghoulish about how much some people are anticipating Charlie Sheen announcing that he is HIV positive.
It's also sad that, judging from many of the comments on twitter, a lot of people don't understand that being HIV positive does not mean that Charlie Sheen has AIDS. Check out a few of the comments:
Damn charlie sheen got alot less cooler now that he has aids
— Shane Reilly (@shaner142) November 17, 2015
Charlie Sheen has AIDS…. shocker
— Chaning (@channcorns) November 17, 2015
Charlie Sheen's "Winning!" Streak Ends After He Gets HIV https://t.co/1nL9a1DR84 #GrowthCrossings #WordedTuesday pic.twitter.com/6qxD8CnL8Y
— Vibe.co.ke (@VibeKenya) November 17, 2015
I want to feel sorry for Charlie Sheen, but I can't. These are the consequences to a reckless lifestyle. https://t.co/zh5Qs7Jd3t
— TheMizz⚡ (@MizzyII) November 17, 2015
Charlie Sheen is HIV positive, it is proof when you reject god and take short cuts, the consequences will be severe.
— William Roberts (@williammroberts) November 16, 2015
HAHAHAHHAHAH CHARLIE SHEEN GOT AIDS TAKE THAT FAGGOT @charliesheen
— шеш lad (@makzimiser) November 17, 2015
Keep in mind that I'm writing this at 1:33 in the morning and Charlie Sheen has yet to officially announce anything. By the time this post is published and you read it, Sheen will probably have announced whatever it is that he's going to announce but, for now, nobody knows anything. There's just speculation. For all we know, Sheen is going to announce that he's HIV negative or that he wants to be Donald Trump's running mate.
In fact, the only thing we know for sure is that a lot of people seem to be positively gleeful about the possibility of Charlie Sheen having HIV. I've never been a fan of Charlie Sheen's and I found his whole "winning" thing to be more pathetic than anything else. But it has always disturbed me that his extremely self-destructive behavior has always been treated as a source of entertainment. What's particularly offensive is that many of the same people who loved to watch crazy old Charlie talk about "tiger blood," are now gloating about how Sheen's "lifestyle" has caught up with him. It was a lifestyle that was largely dependent upon and made possible by American's own twisted love/hate relationship with celebrity.
The blogger known as Jedadiah Leland and I have often debated whether or not social media is worth all the trouble. Usually, I think I can make a pretty good case that twitter does enough good that it makes all the other bullshit worth it. But, when I see thousands of strangers competing to come up with the best joke about someone being HIV-positive, I start to think that he may have a point.
And since I've just been critical of twitter, I'll wrap this up with a tweet from my sister:
Right, let's all talk about Charlie Sheen because it's not like there's anything else happening in the world right now.
The best laid plans of Lisa…
Before I got caught up writing about Charlie Sheen, I was going to devote a bit of a space to talking about how much I hate it when people show up late for a movie. I mean, seriously — we all know that, if a movie is listed as starting at 7:00, the movie isn't really going to start until 7:20. That's a 20 minute grace period right there and there's really no excuse for arriving at the theater after that grace period has ended. If you're going to be more than 20 minutes late, either go to a different showing or go back home. But for God's sake, don't wander into the theater and go, "Oh, the movie's started," and then stumble around looking for a seat in the dark.
To be honest, I'd rather be stuck in a theater with a screaming baby than have to deal with people showing up 30 minutes late for the movie.
As long as we're here, check this out!
The evil clown who pops up to sing 'Get Yourself High' in the Chemical Brothers' live show has his own Facebook page. I am so happy right now! Unfortunately, there's not much information on the page about the clown but I liked it anyway. You never know when the clown might decide to open up about his hopes and dreams.
FLASHBACK TIME!
You know what you should find time to do today? You should take a trip into the past and read the very first review that Leonard Wilson ever wrote for this site. I present to you … Leonard's 2o11 review of Rango!
One Final Thought…
At any given time, I usually have about a week's worth of blog posts scheduled to publish on the various sites that I write for. So, if I died tomorrow, my writing would actually outlive me. Think about it — I could be dead and still giving you my opinion. And if I am dead and I tell you to see a movie, you better see it!
Posted in Editorial, Film, Lisa's Editorial Corner | Tagged Charlie Sheen, Editorial, Leonard Wilson, Lisa Marie Bowman, Lisa's Editorial Corner, Rango, The Chemical Brothers | 1 Comment
Steve Jobs (Dir. by Danny Boyle)
Posted on October 15, 2015 by Leonard Wilson
I don't have much to say about Steve Jobs, which has been playing here in New York in a limited release. This is how I know I didn't care for it.
When you look at the list of people who came together to make the new movie about Steve Jobs, it's almost impossible to think that the end result could be bad. You've got Academy Award Winner Danny Boyle, whose work I've enjoyed since Trainspotting. With a track record like 28 Days Later, The Beach, Sunshine, and Slumdog Millionaire, he's having a wonderful run. You also have Academy Award Winner Aaron Sorkin, fresh off both The Social Network, Moneyball and The Newsroom working the screenplay. With actors like Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave, Slow West) and Kate Winslet (Divergent, A Little Chaos) on board , it's almost like having the stars align.
And yet, I almost walked out on Steve Jobs. It just wasn't for me. Maybe I was just tired.
The film focuses on three places in the Steve's life:
– The launch of the original Macintosh just after the "1984" Super Bowl commercial.
– The launch of the NeXt system, which Jobs created after being fired by Apple.
– The launch of the first iMac, just after Jobs returned to Apple as the interim CEO.
The entire first part was really good, with arguments going back and forth over the ability to get the on stage Mac to say "Hello". Steve also argues with Chrisann Brennan over the financial support for her daughter, Lisa Nicole. Steve simply won't admit she is his. When asked about the name of his first computer, Jobs goes to great lengths to explain that the acronym (Local Integrated System Architecture) is just a coincidence. When Lisa amazes him with her computer usage, he decides to support her mom with a check.
Every segment after that felt like a repeat of the first one to me, almost like Run Lola Run. In the beginning, it feels fresh, witty, nice. By the end, I was fighting to simply stay awake and care. What I hoped to see was more interaction with Steve and Lisa. If they were so distanced then, and grew close later in life, what was the catalyst? Was it the cancer diagnosis Steve had in the early 2000's? We'll never know, because the movie stops just before that time period. Did he suddenly realize that his heart wasn't as small as the Grinch? What about Jonny Ive, who was responsible for much of Apple's design after Job's return? Nope, not even so much a mention. And I think this is the overall problem I have with the film. Yes, Steve Jobs by himself was a visionary, and as the story points out, he conducts the Orchestra, but there's no reverence whatsoever to any of the other people that helped get Apple where it is. It doesn't make the movie terrible for not covering these angles, but there are a number of missed opportunities as a result of using such a narrow range.
Fassbender was wonderful to watch onscreen, as well as Winslet. One of the odd things is that from a performance standpoint, everyone in Steve Jobs is effective. I wouldn't be surprised to see Fassbender get some kind of recognition come awards season. Even Seth Rogen did a good job, though his version of Wozniak was limited to constantly arguing for credit like Morrie in Goodfellas looking for his cut of the Luftansa Heist. There are points, however, where the banter just becomes a little too much.
Mind you, I loved The Social Network. I enjoyed The Newsroom. A Few Good Men is one of my favorite films. I've even seen the man in person once. He knows what he's doing when it comes to having people talk. Here, it just seemed like Sorkin said…"What if I created a play about how Steve Jobs could be." and rolled with it. Supposedly, he acknowledged that much of the writing here isn't entirely accurate. I can accept that, but I think the structure of the film damaged it all for me. I would have preferred more of a straight A-B narrative than what I received. Is that too long to put to screen? Perhaps.
Here at the Shattered Lens, Lisa Marie and I have gone head to head regarding Aaron Sorkin, sometimes yelling from our respective offices. She's not a fan, but I've liked his work. The argument is that for all of his abilities when it comes to writing, he doesn't really handle women well. It's true. Women haven't always fared well in Sorkin's world, and watching Winslet, I was almost sure I could come back here and say in his defense…"Hey, Sorkin wrote a good girl that doesn't just exist to help the male hero to succeed or as a target for males to pick on. This isn't Demi Moore in A Few Good Men. Aha!!" I wanted to say that. I really did…but I can't. As good as Winslet is here, her character is almost Emily Mortimer's from The Newsroom. She does have some great lines, and her screen time with Fassbender is nice.
I did enjoy Danny Boyle's direction here. The approach with using the different film styles (old style camera work for the 1984 Macintosh launch, conventional film for the NeXt Launch, and HD optics for the iMac release) was interesting, and I liked how he used the environment to tell the story. I have little to complain about there.
Note that the audience did applaud the film. There were moments where a phrase or two yielded some laughs. In that sense, maybe the film accomplished something. You'll have to see it and come to your own conclusions on how it works for you.
It just wasn't for me, and I was really looking forward to it.
Posted in Film | Tagged Aaron Sorkin, Apple Computer, Danny Boyle, Jeff Daniels, Kate Winslet, Leonard Wilson, Michael Fassbender, Seth Rogen, Steve Jobs | 36 Comments
Quick Review: Marvel's Ant-Man (dir. by Peyton Reed)
Posted on July 18, 2015 by Leonard Wilson
*** Wait a minute! Before checking this out, be sure to read TrashFilmGuru's thoughts on Ant-Man and then if you like, double back here. Two opinions are better than one! ***
I walked into Ant Man with a bias.
As a fan of Edgar Wright, his departure on the film due to creative differences left me wondering if it was worth seeing. Mix that with the idea that Marvel diverged from the character's comic book origins for a better fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it all seemed like a recipe for failure. This was going to be the Cars 2 of the MCU, I was sure of it.
Ant-Man isn't as large a tale as Captain America: The First Avenger or as star spanning as Guardians of the Galaxy. At times, it feels like it the story would be better suited for an extended Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Crossover or a Netflix one shot instead of a big screen event. It actually reminded me of Jon Favreau's Iron Man in many ways, back when all of this was so small that audiences weren't searching for tie-ins to next film in the line up or homages to The Story So Far. Ant-Man comes with the MCU connections (and comic book ones too), but if you walk in expecting revelations as big as Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the film may be a disappointment. It's just a hero, and idea that even small actions can have big effects. It's easily the film's greatest strength, that it's so personal. The film's best components are it's casting (particularly in House of Cards & The Strain's Corey Stoll and Fury's Michael Pena), and the effects themselves. It's a movie that's well worth the 3D treatment, if you can catch it that way.
Ant-Man focuses on Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), a former thief who is just trying to spend more time with his daughter, or at least be a hero in her eyes. Scott ends up meeting with Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly) who brings him on board for a job that just happens to cover his particular skill set. The job comes with a special suit that allows Lang to shrink down to about the size of an Ant, while at the same time allowing him to be much stronger. When Pym's protege and rival Cross (Stoll) discovers another way to possibly make the shrink ability work, it's up to Lang to try to stop the progress.
The film had 4 writers during it's creation. It had Edgar Wright, who many moviegoers know from the Cornetto Trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World's End) and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Adam McKay worked with Rudd in the past on the Anchorman films, and was responsible for Talladega Nights & Step Brothers. Both McKay and Rudd had a hand in writing Ant-Man. Finally, Attack the Block's Joe Cornish was on board. The end result of all this is a film with a great deal of comedy influences in it, though not all of them hit the mark. I felt there were at least 2 moments in the film where Rudd's character had a one liner that just didn't hit the mark, or elicit a response from the audience. This isn't a terrible thing, at most it's just nitpicking. Overall, you could consider Ant-Man a comic caper with superhero moments.
Additionally, the writers had to also figure out how to make the character of Dr. Hank Pym useful in a storyline where one of his biggest arcs in the comics – creating Ultron – was already handled in a previous story. I like to think this was handled pretty well, as comic readers will already recognize Scott Lang as being the 2nd Ant-Man – or least this is what I learned from the Marvel Encyclopedia. They've managed to keep familiar storylines in place while still anchoring it to the larger tale at hand.
The performances in Ant-Man are good, though it's the co-stars that potentially steal the film from the leads. Lang's heist buddies, played by David Dastmalchian (The Dark Knight), Cliff "T.I." Harris (Takers), and Michael Pena (Fury) were indeed funny in this. Pena in particular stood out as someone who gets ahold of information through some pretty wild sources. Michael Douglas was a strange pick for me when I first heard about it, but he's actually a fantastic fit for the whole story. Evangeline Lilly looked like she had a lot of fun with this, though her character served as a second mentor for Lang. I wanted to see her do a bit more in the film, actually. Bobby Canavale (Chef, Third Watch) and Judy Greer (Jurassic World) both have nice supporting roles in this.
Corey Stoll has played an ass so much on-screen that I'm not entirely sure he isn't that way off camera. Between Non-Stop, House of Cards, Midnight in Paris and now Ant-Man, he's plays the kind of characters that were historically set aside for character actors like Jeff Kober or Michael Ironside. Honestly, they couldn't have made a better choice here. Cross comes off like a variant of Iron Man's Odebiah Stane, resentful, evil, and maybe a little crazed. Rudd, on the other hand, handles the Hero's Journey with ease, bringing his own sense of comedy that works almost as well as it did for Chris Pratt in Guardians of the Galaxy. It's not perfect, but the character's lighthearted nature is a good contrast from the serious gloom and doom that most of the Avengers are going through these days, and I feel Rudd did well here.
That's another aspect of Ant-Man that needs to be recognized. The story in this may have a larger impact in things to come, but it felt really compact. Since the focus on the story involves Lang getting back to his daughter and stopping this one small thing, it takes a step back from the escalation we've been getting in previous MCU films. To me, since Phase Two started, every film's been a stepping stone with at least one huge revelation somewhere that shows this is all much bigger than any one hero can take on. Discovery of the Infinity Stones, the big reveal of S.H.I.E.L.D. In the Winter Soldier and the events in Age of Ultron cover a large area. Maybe it's better to say that they have an impact that's covers a wide distance. With Ant-Man being the first film of Phase Three, it feels almost as if a step back it taken to something more personal. It's not bad, but it's different. It has the potential to leave viewers with a bad taste in their mouths if they were expecting something grand.
The effects in Ant-Man are good, really, really sweet. Quite honestly, it may be one of the first times where I haven't found myself annoyed by what I call "The Zoic Effect" – that technique used in almost every film these days where you're watching something and the director decides "Hey, let's do a maximum level quick zoom on that target right there!", because there's a chance the audience might not see the subject. I believe Zoic Studios were the first to do that with Firefly and Battlestar Galactica, though I could be wrong. In Ant-Man, that rapid intense zoom is almost a welcome requirement when watching a little figure run and leap up and over objects. Add a 3D effect to all that, and I found myself enjoying that on the big screen. From a directing standpoint, it's all very straightforward and you get an idea of the influences from all of the writers involved. Still, Peyton Reed (Down With Love) keeps from the film from straying too far away from it's intended focus. Additionally, though the help of CGI, Disney/Marvel was able to digitize a younger Michael Douglas, and the look of this was even better than what they accomplished with Jeff Bridges in Tron: Legacy.
Overall, Ant-Man is a great addition to the MCU and on it's own, it's strong. I suppose Thor will still have to stay as the Cars 2 of that movie library. Note to viewers: If you're planning to see this, be sure to stay until after the end credits. There's a mid scene during the credits and one at the very end.
Posted in Film Review | Tagged Ant-Man, Bobby Cannavale, Cliff "T.I." Harris, Comic Book Movies, Corey Stoll, David Dastmalchian, Disney, Edgar Wright, Evangeline Lilly, Hayley Atwell, Joe Cornish, John Slattery, Leonard Wilson, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios, Michael Douglas, Michael Peña, Paul Rudd, Peyton Reed | 17 Comments
Scenes I Love: The Road Warrior
Posted on May 18, 2015 by Arleigh
"…warrior of the wasteland, the Lord Humungus, [and] the ayatollah of rock-and-rollah."
This past weekend saw George Miller release the fourth film in his classic Mad Max film series. Mad Max: Fury Road has been receiving critical-acclaim both from film critics and the general public. It's a film that has shown the return of an action-film maestro to the forefront of a genre he helped create.
Leonard Wilson has made his thought's known about Mad Max: Fury Road and all should check it out.
Yet, today I would like to share a favorite scene of mine from the second film in the series, Mad Max 2 aka The Road Warrior. This scene introduces the leader of the roving band of post-apocalyptic raiders who have besieged the small-community and it's supply of precious oil and gasoline. Lord Humungus has become such an iconic figure in this series and in action-film lore.
The look of Humungus and his band of raiders would influence other post-apocalyptic films for years to come. It has even had a hand in creating the look for the Dr. Dre and Tupac music video "California Love."
Posted in Film, Scenes I Love | Tagged Emil Minty, George Miller, Kjell Nilsson, Leonard Wilson, Lord Humungus, Mad Max 2, Mad Max film series, Mad Max: Fury Road, Mel Gibson, post-apocalyptic action film, Scenes I Love, The Road Warrior, Vernon Wells | 4 Comments
Brad Bird's Interview at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival
Posted on April 25, 2015 by Leonard Wilson
Brad Bird and Janeane Garofalo have a sit down at the Tribeca Film Festival to discuss film, animation and the mediums in between.
This is going to be a long one, ladies and gents. My apologies if this becomes TL;DR material.
Here's the short of it:
I was able to see Brad Bird speak at The Tribeca Film Festival. For the hour, he discussed the changes and challenges he faced with moving from animation to live action features. The audience was shown a set of clips – one from Ratatouille, one from Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, and one from his latest film, Tomorrowland. Near the last half of the interview, Bird fielded questions from the audience. I had a great time.
And here's the Interstellar 3-Hour Neverending Edition:
When I was a kid, there used to be this show on network television called Amazing Stories. Produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, it ran for about 2 years or so between 1985 and 1987. It was kind of like a cross between Darkroom, Tales From the Darkside, and The Twilight Zone. One of my favorite episodes was "The Family Dog". The big push with The Family Dog was that it was produced by Tim Burton and the animation style was the basis for his future films The Corpse Bride, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Frankenweenie. I loved it. It was weird and funny, about a family that adopts a dog only to find that their house is robbed, with the dog inside and failing to stop the intruders. The dog is sent to a canine boarding school, where he's reforged into a "white hot ball of canine terror" by Miss LeStrange (voiced by The Exorcist's Mercedes McCambridge). There's more to it, but after recording the show and watching it a zillion times, I paid attention to who wrote it.
And that's how I started following Brad Bird.
Bird would later go on work on Batteries Not Included, and spent some time on the Simpsons before directing and writing The Iron Giant for Warner Brothers. While the movie wasn't the commercial hit everyone hoped, it put Bird on Disney / Pixar's radar, who brought him on to do both The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Pixar would end up adding Bird to their Brain Trust, that includes Pete Docter, John Lassiter and Andrew Stanton. Bird's big jump from Animation to Live Action would come with 2011's Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Next month (as of this writing), he'll release Tomorrowland, which he shared writing responsibilities with Prometheus / Lost writer Damon Lindelof.
Bird was on hand at the Tribeca Film Festival's Director Series in an interview hosted by his Ratatouille star, Janeane Garofalo. I was able to attend this, and took as many notes as I could. Some of this may be a little sketchy, based off of both what I wrote & how I interpreted it, to which I apologize beforehand. Although we were able to use phones for pictures, we couldn't record anything. Assume that most of the questions and answers here are somewhat paraphrased. More than likely, you can find recaps of the interview at the Tribeca Film Festival website.
At first, Janeane was a little curious about what she should ask, opening the floor with her humor, which had everyone laughing.
Question – So you said something about a tour taken as a child?
Bird spoke about a tour he took of Disney Studios, back when he was about 11. He saw the Jungle Book as a kid and just loved it. He also realized that there were all of these cool jobs in animation. According to Bird, he owned an album with some of actor Jonathan Winter's voiceover work and would listen to that as well. Though his parents who knew a composer at Disney, they were able to meet with Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. Both Ollie and Frank were two of the original animators responsible for most of the Disney Classics, known as the Nine Old Men. Unexpectedly, Bird went home and ended up creating a 15 minute film for the animators. After that, they were eager to mentor him.
Garafolo praised Bird on how he's taken Narrative storytelling to another level but asked about technical challenges in Animation.
Bird noted that from a tech standpoint, The Incredibles was a harder film to create because the design abilities were just being born. An example of this is the wet hair textures after the plane crash sequence. At the time, that was one of the latest things that Pixar learned to do. By the time Ratatouille came along, there were a number of improves, which made things easier. Bird went on to say that "People think there's an easy "Make Movie" button that will produce work." However, if you want imperfections, the computers had to be taught this. In Ratatouille, Bird described how working on the floors, the lighting needed to have a variant because tiles may be higher or lower than others or have damages. The computer would normally smooth out the surface, but they had to reprogram the system to support natural flaws. A later question that came up dealt with focus, where Bird found that CGI Cameras can act like real cameras. When you normally focus on something small with a regular camera, the depth of field becomes small. The computer would assume that the director wanted a high Depth of Field throughout, but again, Bird and Pixar had to train the machines to un-learn that.
At one point, Janeane started a question and asked about different genres in Animation to which Brad replied "Animation is a medium, not a genre." There was a bit of back and forth chuckling between them, and their chemistry is just cool.
"With the actors you choose, how much control do you have in that?" Bird's response was along the lines of it all being about actor interest. He had to "woo" Peter O'Toole for Ratatouille. Some actors thing that voice acting is easy, but it can be difficult. What takes an actor 5 minutes to say may take an animator weeks to come up (with regards to facial animations and the like, I'm guessing). Patton Oswalt would say sometimes that he was beat after a run. My personal speculation on this is that with animating, sometimes re-recording needs to happen to get a phrase sound right. I could be off here, but that was my interpretation of the statement. The audience was presented with a clip from Ratatouille where Linguini is introduced to Collette for the first time.
Janeane apologized for her French here. There was a bit of laughter as Bird shared a story of how with Janeane, she didn't seem to take praise very well. He would have to pretty much tell her she sucked to motivate her, even though she did good. The conversation then moved on to Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.
Ghost Protocol happened as Bird was working on a pet project he called 1906, the adaptation of James Dalessandro's novel on the events surrounding the San Francisco earthquake during that year. He was very animated in discussing 1906. It was a rich project, but there were some problems getting all of the elements Bird needed into the story at the time. He didn't want to make it a life project (without working on anything else), so he paused to jump onto Ghost Protocol. The audience was then shown the Hallway sequence from the movie, where Simon Pegg and Tom Cruise mask their entrance into a room in the Kremlin. The scene picked up some chuckles from the Audience with Pegg's "face in the camera" moment.
A question came up on whether he was hindered in any way, working on a big project like Ghost Protocol. Bird wasn't really hindered, but what attracted him to the film was that the franchise was willing to let him accommodate his individual style. The Brian DePalma version of the first Mission Impossible was different from John Woo's work on the 2nd and J.J. Abrams work on the 3rd film. Bird added that he was given the chance to do "five out of six things" he wanted to do in a spy movie. Both Cruise and Abrahams were behind Bird on the film and he felt protected by them. On Cruise in particular, he praised his work ethic, pointing out that it was easy to have him climb the Burj Khalifa in Dubai because he keeps himself fit for every film. Garofalo took a moment to reference the HBO Documentary "Going Clear" with a "LRH" remark. "We could go on about that all day." She said, though they moved on to their next topic.
Before continuing, Bird made a quick gesture to the screen and pointed out to the audience that he and Cruise talked about some Silent classic films and comedies. These were part of the influence for that particular hallway scene.
Janeane brought up a question on the toll with working on a big film (after doing animated features). Bird's response was that it was like being thrown in the deep end of a shark infested pool. He jumped to work with Cruise and Abrams, and it was a lot of fun. "Big canvas stuff", were the words used.
Control on Post Production came up (in terms of how much he had). So far, so good, was the reply. Bird stood up, leaned down to the floor of the stage and knocked on it. "Knock on wood." He said as he sat back down with a smile before adding that he only had to bark a few times, if any.
With that, we were given a sneak peek at Bird's latest project, Tomorrowland. In checking online, I found that it was an expanded version of the one showcased at Disney's D23 Event last year. Unfortunately, the clip we were shown isn't online in any form (at least I can't find it online), so I'll have to explain it here:
The scene opens with a young child sitting on a bus, holding quite a large bag. Screeching to a halt, the bus driver opens the door and announces the stop. The driver tells everyone to "enjoy the future". As the patrons go to leave the bus, they're suddenly blocked by the boy's bag, which falls into the main aisle. The passengers give him some weird looks, but he smiles, apologizes and scoops up the bag, making his way off of the bus.
We're given his perspective, a behind the character shot that showcases that he's at the entrance of a festival. At the bottom of the screen, a caption appears, informing the audience that we're at the 1964 World's Fair, held in Queens, New York. We're given a wider shot and it's very much like Disneyworld, it's bustling with people walking around and enjoying themselves. We focus on one area, with a name like The Hall of Invention. The boy enters and plops his bag on top a table where we find David Nix (Hugh Laurie) staring at him with a look of annoyance on his face. Note that his name isn't given to the audience and that I've pulled it from the Internet Movie Database.
The boy unzips the bag, explaining that he had to partly disassemble it (it looking a lot like a vacuum cleaner) for transportation. As Nix looks on, he asks the boy who he is and what the contraption is supposed to be. The boy introduces himself as Frank Walker and states with pride that the device is a jetpack. He goes on to say that he's still working on it, and as he says this, we're given a quick cut to him standing in an open field. Wearing the jetpack, he dons a pair of goggles, a flight helmet and we see two sets of controls by each hand. The look is pretty much the whole James Bond Thunderball look.
The shot cuts back to the boy standing at the table, who adds…"though it doesn't quite exactly…."
We're back at the field, and the kid clicks the power button. Instead of shooting straight up high into the air, he is vaulted forward, bounces and taken through some cornfields about a good hundred yards out. The first thing I thought of was The Rocketeer (also a Disney Production).
"…Fly." The boy says, finishing his pitch.
"And what would this be used for?" Nix asks, looking from the machine to Walker.
"It would be fun." Walker responds.
Nix shoots him down, stating that fun isn't what anyone's looking for. Clearly, he seems to already be looking at the idea of monetizing or weaponizing it.
"If someone walked up to me and showed me a jetpack, I'd think that would be pretty fun." Walker says something to this effect. A young girl in a dress comes into view just off of Nix's left, who's been watching this play out. She approaches Walker and asks him a few questions that leave him at loss for answers, which the audience seemed to really enjoy. After the stammering on Walker's part, Nix interrupts the girl (who we find is named Athena) and sends Walker on his way. The girl watches on.
We find Walker sitting on a bench outside, clutching his bag. People walk back and forth around him. To his right, we see Athena take a seat next him on the bench, but facing the other direction. They talk for a bit without looking at each other.
"Look over there, at your five o'clock." She says. Walker looks ahead and to his left and then to his right, a little unsure. She looks at him as if he's little crazy and gestures to her left. "Don't know what 5 O'Clock is, it's that way." Which brings more audience response of chuckles. Looking in the direction she points out, she sees Nix pass by with someone else. Athena asks him to follow them, "but not too close". She then proceeds to put something in his hand and leaves. Opening it, it reveals one of the Tomorrowland pins before fading to black and cutting to a scene where he's in his garage, arguing with his father (played by Chris Bauer, True Blood's Andy Bellefleur).
"But I can make it work! I can figure it out!" Frank says. His father asks him to let it go and stop tinkering with these silly notions. There seemed to be a divide between the theme of Frank's optimism and his father's point of view before we fade to black again and the lights come up.
The audience loved it. On Tomorrowland, Bird pointed out that he and Lindelof asked "Why did the Future change?" The attitude of the world was "We can figure it out.", Which seems missing today. The magic of World's Fairs are dispersed. Janeane shot back that are a number of people out there that are changing things and used Elon Musk as an example. Bird added that the Zeitgeist is doom and gloom, and any hope of a bright future is somewhat stemmed. People seem resigned that we're going down. "You have to do things, to change things.", He said. On a personal note, there appears to be a lot of Optimism in Tomorrowland, something that Bird seems to carry with him.
Brad Bird took questions like Syndrome – "You! Up there in the back with the red hat! Your question, give it to me!!"
After all that, a few questions from the audience were given. This was fun, with Janeane started the picking and then Brad targeting the hands that flew up. It was like watching Syndome use his wrist lasers in The Incredibles. They included the following:
What was the Sixth Thing (for the 5 out of 6 things he was able to do in a spy film)?
"That would be giving up the idea." Bird laughed. Most of the ideas are reusable somewhere else. He had a concept for an animated version of Will Eisner's The Spirit, but some of the ideas for that feature ended up becoming part of The Iron Giant.
How do you handle lighting in Animation vs. Live Action?
– When dealing with lighting, it's almost the same way. A shorthand of cinematographer's work was used to build setups. I can kind of see where Bird is coming from there. If you look at How to Train Your Dragon 2, the cinematography there was assisted by Roger Deakins. Lighting's just as important in animation as it is in any medium. It's just teaching the computer to handle it or drawing from that (at least, that's my thought on it all).
How different is TV Work from movies?
"If you slow down, you can get eaten alive." Bird said. He used the I Love Lucy chocolate assembly line as a reference here, stating that he learned a great deal on his time with the Simpsons. TV forces one to make very quick decisions. Iron Giant's budget was different from Ratatouille's and there was room to build more from that.
On creating genuine peril:
Bird loved that Disney wasn't afraid of creating general fear in children, citing Pinocchio's donkey transformation as something that terrified him. If animation should do anything, it should try a "balls out horror movie". Dead Space: Downfall came to mind, personally.
Ever consider doing a live action / animated feature (like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?)
– Some of those work and can play together. Others come out pretty bad, like the Pagemaster. Bird wouldn't be entirely opposed to doing one, but he didn't appear to be too enthralled about it.
What are your processes for generating Ideas?
Here, Bird said that it's different for each film. As an example, he wanted to do a film called "Ray Gun". The idea came from a song he heard on the radio that he thought sounded like the Peter Gunn theme. Janeane smiled and caught the song right away – "Planet Claire" by the B52's. Basically, it's coming up with answers that entertain you.
With that, he and Janeane thanked the audience to tons of applause, and a bit of optimism. Below is the song that Bird was referencing:
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Batteries Not Included, Brad Bird, Disney / Pixar, Janeane Garofalo, Leonard Wilson, Mission:Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Ratatouille, The Family Dog, The Incredibles, The Simpsons, Tomorrowland, Tribeca Film Festival | Leave a comment
Song of the Day: Orphans of Doom/The Awakening (by Basil Poledouris)
Posted on December 27, 2014 by Arleigh
We're closing out another year and it's always time to reflect back on the events the we all experienced.
Here in Through the Shattered Lens we saw a new writer join the ranks with the arrival and addition of Alexandre Rothier. We also saw more and more of our writers grow in confidence with their writing. This didn't just translate into more writing from them, but better as well. There's Dazzling Erin with her constant surprise of finding new artists to share. Then leonth3duke who finally made the jump to truly appreciating horror. Leonard Wilson continued to find his voice with each new review he wrote.
I can't forget necromoonyeti who continues to be my source of all things music and with each new band written I pick up something new to experience. Semtex Skittle showed the world his appreciation not just for the franchise of Final Fantasy but Sailor Moon as well and to that otaku are grateful. Speaking of otaku there's the site's own big bear of one with pantsukudasai56 who always brings in his choice recommendations in anime.
Then there's Dork Geekus giving us his thoughts on things comic book. We also have trashfilmguru gracious enough to take time to share his unique take on horror, comic books both high and low-brow who also keeps the rest of us from drinking the Marvel Kool-Aid wholesale which makes for a better site.
Finally there's my co-founder and partner-in-crime Lisa Marie Bowman who upped her game as she literally propped up the site at times with her voluminous, insightful and unique brand of writing. I will be forever grateful for her continued support and for becoming one of my closest friends.
I've chosen the latest "Song of the Day" as an analogue to what I saw myself and this site go through this year of 2014. I had just lost my father at the tail end of 2013 (it is a loss still felt even today) and then had fallen deathly ill around the holidays. Through it all I was thankful and proud of the work my fellow writers were able to do in my absence through my grief and sickness.
Basil Poledouris remains an artist I've admired from the moment I heard his music transform John Milius' screen adaptation of Robert E. Howard's Cimmerian barbarian from just your standard violent sword-and-sorcery matinee piece to something close to a perfect blend of epic fantasy and primal storytelling. Poledouris would go on to make other memorable film scores, but it's his work in Conan the Barbarian that always remains his most iconic piece of work.
With the final denouement that follows the climax of the film we have a somber piece titled "Orphans of Doom/The Awakening" closing off the film. I chose this piece to symbolize the year Through the Shattered Lens went through. The piece begins on a somber note with the use of a choir adding a layer of the ethereal, but as the piece continues to it's conclusion it gradually segues into something triumphant with hope for the future.
This song perfectly encapsulates Through the Shattered Lens circa 2014 and it's my hope that brighter future awaits me and mine as the new year dawns.
Posted in Editorial, Film, Music, Song of the Day | Tagged Alexandre Rothier, AlexandreRothier, Basil Poledouris, Cimmerian, Conan the Barbarian, Dazzling Erin, Dork Geekus, film score, film soundtrack, John Milius, Leonard Wilson, leonth3duke, Lisa Marie Bowman, necromoonyeti, orchestral score, Orphans of Doom, pantsukudasai56, Robert. E. Howard, Semtex SKittle, song of the day, symphonic score, The Awakening, trashfilmguru | 2 Comments


Often, to get something done that really matters to us, we need to work with people we don't agree with or like or trust. Adam Kahane has faced this challenge many times, working on big issues like democracy and jobs and climate change and on everyday issues in organizations and families. He has learned that our conventional understanding of collaboration—that it requires a harmonious team that agrees on where it's going, how it's going to get there, and who needs to do what—is wrong. Instead, we need a new approach to collaboration that embraces discord, experimentation, and genuine cocreation—which is exactly what Kahane provides in this groundbreaking and timely book.


text:
Q: I can not open a Wifi with captive portal There is a public Wifi which I am unable to use, because I cannot get to the captive portal where i can put the user name and password. i can do that from my phone but not from my Ubuntu 18.04.3
I tried the solutions which are written here:
Cannot reach public WIFI login page in Ubuntu 18.04 Captive Portal Issue
but still it is not working. any help please.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Something new … really new
By Kel Munger
River Stage's annual Playwright's Festival of New Works starts this weekend, so mark your calendars for premieres of new plays directed by artistic director Frank Condon. The Dyer's Hand by Doris Baizley runs this weekend (Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.) and takes as its point of departure a line from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. What delay in Mexico costs Antonio his ability to repay Shylock? Baizley takes a crack at answering that hypothetical. The other featured play takes off from a very real White House meeting between President Theodore Roosevelt and Samuel Clemens—otherwise known as Mark Twain. In T.R. and Twain: Luncheon at the White House, playwrights Frank Denson and Allen Freeman get two mountainous egos to poke at each other about issues that will sound surprisingly familiar. T.R. and Twain will run July 31 and August 1, also at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5-$7; call (916) 691-7364 for reservations.
More Arts&Culture » Curtain Call
Cabaret redux
A move—slightly—toward a more cabaret-style show at Cosmo Cabaret.
Keep on dancin'
Good news from the Sacramento Ballet.
A tale of two cabarets
One local cabaret sells out. The other doesn't.
Tweeting like a bard
"Four hundred years since Shakespeare was deleted—how lovely now if he could be retweeted!"
All the Shakespeare you can handle
The Bard's comedies, at a nickel a line. It's a bargain.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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The Identification, Assessment, and Treatment of Adults Who Abuse Animals
by Kenneth Shapiro • Antonia J. Z. Henderson
This book provides step-by-step guidance on how to identify, assess and treat adults who have abused animals. The theoretical framework employed is broad, encompassing cognitive behavioral, psychodynamic, attachment, and trauma-based theories. Organized by stages of therapy, the text discusses how... More
The Phantom Chronicles: New Tales of the Ghost Who Walks!
by Craig Shaw Gardner • Clay Griffith • Trina Robbins • Nancy Kilpatrick • Len Kody • David Michelinie • Will Murray • Mike Oliveri • Martin A. Powell • Ed Rhoades • Dan Wickline • Jim Alexander • David Bishop • Martin Powell • Mike Bullock • Ron Fortier • Steven Grant • Susan Griffith • C. J. Henderson
Nearly five centuries ago, pirates took the life of merchant ship captain Christopher Standish. In the heat of the battle aboard the ship, Standish's son was knocked overboard to wash ashore on a remote beach. After stumbling upon the body of his father's killer, young Standish swore an oath on the ... More
Systems of Cities and Facility Location (Fundamentals Of Pure And Applied Economics Ser. #Vol. 2)
by P. Hansen • J. Henderson • M. Labbe • J. Peeters • J. Thisse
Clouds, Wasps, Peace
by Aristophanes • Jeffrey C. Henderson
Aristophanes of Athens (ca. 446-386 BC), one of the world's great comic dramatists, has been admired since antiquity for his wit and fantasy, language, and satire of the social, intellectual and political life of Athens at its height. He wrote at least 40 plays, of which 11 have survived complete.... More
Managing Tourism Crises
by Joan C Henderson
In a world of increasing uncertainty it is vital that managers within the tourism industry are equipped with superior decision making skills and expertise necessary to deal with crisis conditions.Tourism Crises provides an effective synthesis of crisis management and tourism research with a solid th... More
Open the Gates to the Ivy League: A Plan B for Getting into the top Colleges
by C. W. Henderson
The only guide to college admissions that offers an alternative gateway to getting into the USA's top-rated schools. Ivy League schools on average reject about 90 percent of applicants. But there is another way to gain admittance to the top colleges in the U. S. -a back gateway. This guide is a P... More
Insurance Law: Cases and Materials (Third Edition)
by Roger C. Henderson
This Third Edition includes many new cases and notes, as well as a thorough revamping of a number of sections and chapters. For example, Chapter 2 now brings together materials on fundamental assumptions of insurance law. A new Chapter 3 brings together a variety of materials on both judicial and le... More
A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and Its War with the United States
by Timothy J. Henderson
In contrast with many current books that treat the war as a fundamentally American experience, Timothy J. Henderson offers a fresh perspective on the Mexican side of the equation. Examining the manner in which Mexico gained independence, Henderson brings to light a greater understanding of that coun... More
The Worm in the Wheat: Rosalie Evans and Agrarian Struggle in the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley of Mexico, 1906-1927
The Worm in the Wheat is a compelling tale of political intrigue, violence, shifting allegiances, extreme poverty, and the recalcitrance of one woman. Above all, it is a multileveled interpretation of the Mexican revolution and the ultimate failure of agrarian reform. Timothy J. Henderson recounts t... More
Beyond Borders: A History of Mexican Migration to the United States (Viewpoints / Puntos de Vista #13)
Beyond Borders: A History of Mexican Migration to the United States details the origins and evolution of the movement of people from Mexico into the United States from the first significant flow across the border at the turn of the twentieth century up to the present day. Considers the issues from ... More
Arguing From Evidence in Middle School Science: 24 Activities for Productive Talk and Deeper Learning
by Jonathan F. Osborne • Brian M. Donovan • J. Joseph Henderson • Anna C. MacPherson • Andrew J. Wild
Teaching your students to think like scientists starts here! Use this straightforward, easy-to-follow guide to give your students the scientific practice of critical thinking today's science standards require. Ready-to-implement strategies and activities help you effortlessly engage students in argu... More
You're It: Crisis, Change, and How to Lead When It Matters Most
by Barry C. Dorn • Leonard J. Marcus • Eric J. McNulty • Joseph M. Henderson
Become a better crisis leader while equipping yourself with the tools for every day transformative leadershipToday, in an instant, leaders can find themselves face-to-face with crisis. An active shooter. A media controversy. A data breach. In You're It, the faculty of the National Preparedness Leade... More
Africa's Cities: Opening Doors to the World
by Anthony J. Venables • J. Vernon Henderson • Somik Vinay Lall
Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing rapid population growth. Yet their economic growth has not kept pace. Why? One factor might be low capital investment, due in part to Africa's relative poverty: Other regions have reached similar stages of urbanization at higher per capita GDP. This stud... More
Developing And Managing Your School Guidance And Counseling Program (Fifth Edition)
by Norman C. Gysbers • Patricia Henderson
Five phases for establishing and improving Pre-K-12 comprehensive guidance and counseling programs serve as the organizational framework for this enduring, influential textbook written for counselor educators and their students, school leaders, practicing school counselors, and state or district sup... More
Developing and Managing Your School Guidance and Counseling Program
The fifth edition of this bestseller expands and extends Gysbers and Henderson's acclaimed five-phase model of planning, designing, implementing, evaluating, and enhancing Pre-K–12 guidance and counseling programs. This enduring, influential textbook has been fully updated to reflect current theory ... More
Developing Learning Professionals
by Stephen Billett • Amanda J. Henderson
In higher education institutions across the globe, there is a growing interest in integrating classroom learning with experience in practice settings. This interest is the result of an increased emphasis on courses that prepare students for specific occupations in the hopes that upon graduation stud... More
Decision Making in Systems Engineering and Management
by Gregory S. Parnell • Patrick J. Driscoll • Dale L. Henderson
Decision Making in Systems Engineering and Management is a comprehensive textbook that provides a logical process and analytical techniques for fact-based decision making for the most challenging systems problems. Grounded in systems thinking and based on sound systems engineering principles, the s... More
Are You Entertained?: Black Popular Culture in the Twenty-First Century
by Simone C. Drake • Dwan K. Henderson
The advent of the internet and the availability of social media and digital downloads have expanded the creation, distribution, and consumption of Black cultural production as never before. At the same time, a new generation of Black public intellectuals who speak to the relationship between race, p... More
Protein Moonlighting in Biology and Medicine
by Brian Henderson • Andrew C. Martin • Mario A. Fares
The past 25 years has seen the emergence of a wealth of data suggesting that novel biological functions of known proteins play important roles in biology and medicine. This ability of proteins to exhibit more than one unique biological activity is known as protein moonlighting. Moonlighting protein... More
Starting with Gender in International Higher Education Research (Routledge Critical Studies in Gender and Sexuality in Education)
by Emily F. Henderson • Z. Nicolazzo
Bridging a gap between higher education research and women's and gender studies, this volume explores the conceptual underpinnings and methodological implications involved in researching different concepts commonly associated with gender, including queer, trans*, women, men, feminisms, intersectiona... More
Family Theories: Foundations and Applications
by Katherine R. Allen • Angela C. Henderson
Family Theories: Foundations and Applications presents a comprehensive and accessible approach to the most current perspectives in the field of family theory. Integrates classic and contemporary writings on family theories Features compelling case studies drawn from the authors' experiences working... More
The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics (The Latin America Readers)
by Gilbert M. Joseph • Timothy J. Henderson
The Mexico Reader is a vivid introduction to muchos Méxicos—the many Mexicos, or the many varied histories and cultures that comprise contemporary Mexico. Unparalleled in scope and written for the traveler, student, and expert alike, the collection offers a comprehensive guide to the history and cul... More
Contemporary Climatology
by Ann Henderson-Sellers • P. J. Robinson
Now in its second edition,Climatology continues to provide an up-to-date stimulating and comprehensive guide to the nature of the earth's climate. It presents a synthesis of contemporary scientific ideas about atmospheric circulation. Topics covered include:-Energy systems-The hydrological cycle-Gen... More
Electronic Communication: Technology And Impacts
by Madeline M. Henderson • Marcia J. MacNaughton
Electronic communications technology and services permeate every aspect of national life. This book examines the current and expected states of the technology and considers the societal impact and policy issues arising from new technological developments. Particular attention is paid to evaluation o... More


Supporting Cystic Fibrosis in La Feria. Go #teamsheila!! Drive for your community.
Sunday was Loteria day! The first one was a fundraiser for CASA. CASA is an organization that provides special child advocates.
When I was a prosecutor in the Department of Family and protective services I really appreciated the input these advocates provided.
Last week I attended a function at Valley Haven, the new emergency shelter being built in Harlingen. I was given a tour of the facility. They are making great progress and several organizations are helping turn this place into a reality. I can't wait till it opens and to volunteer some time with this nonprofit.
Last Wednesday I was able to attend a Friendship of Women Fundraiser. This organization does so much for individuals who have been victims of domestic or sexual violence. This fundraiser honored our men and women in blue.


text:
Q: creating array of objects from array of arrays, using static method call (PHP) I have an array like this:
// Define pages
$pages = array(
    "home" => array(
        "title" => "Home page",
        "icon" => "home"
    ),
    "compositions" => array(
        "title" => "Composition page",
        "icon" => "music"
    ),
);

And what I am trying to accomplish is, having:
$navigation = Utils::makeNavigation($pages);

, create $navigation as an array of objects, so that I can parse it in my view
like this:
foreach($navigation as $nav_item){
    echo $nav_item->page; // home(1st iter.), compositions(2nd iter.)
    echo $nav_item->title;// Home page, Composition page
    echo $nav_item->icon; // home, music
}

Is static Util-like-class approach good for this kind of problem?
EDIT
I came up with something like this, does this seem ok?
<?php
class Utils {

    protected static $_navigation;

    public static function makeNavigation($pages = array()){

        if (!empty($pages)){
            foreach ($pages as $page => $parts) {
                $item = new stdClass;
                $item->page = $page;

                foreach ($parts as $key => $value) {
                    $item->$key = $value;
                }
                self::$_navigation[] = $item;
            }
        return self::$_navigation;
        }
    }
}

A: Assuming you are creating the array manually in your code, just cast to objects:
$pages = array(
    "home" => ( object ) array(
        "title" => "Home page",
        "icon" => "home"
    ),
    "compositions" => ( object ) array(
        "title" => "Composition page",
        "icon" => "music"
    ),
);

That will allow accessing them like objects:
$pages->home->title;

or looping through them like this:
for ( $pages as $pageName => $pageObject ) echo $pageName . " has title: " . $pageObject->title;

A: I would include the creation as a static member of the class to keep the class specific code together:
class NavItem
{
//  Static member does not require an object to be called
static function create ($def)
{
    $ret = array ();
    foreach ($def as $idx=>$navDef)
        $ret [$idx] = new NavItem ($navDef);
    return $ret;
}
function __construct ($def)
{
    // Do something more specific with the current def (title, icon array)
    $this->param = $def;
}

function display ()
{
    //  Simple example
    echo $this->param ['title'];
    echo $this->param ['icon'];
}
    var                     $param;
};

//  Using your pages array as above
$pages = NavItem::create ($pages);
foreach ($pages as $idx=>$page)
    $page->display ();