29 June 2013

Birthday
Ray Harryhausen b. 1920 died 5/5/2013

Regular readers will know I wrote an appreciation of Harryhausen  when he died, but besides his work with stop-motion animation, he did a lot to improve the state of the art with moving mattes, which he used to have giants and little people interact. In Jason and the Argonauts, the most action packed scene of this kind is when Poseidon protects the Argo from being destroyed by crashing rocks, the ship sailing under the giant god's outstretched arm. For me, the most memorable scene is Jason visiting the gods on Mount Olympus, and the conversation between tiny Jason and the awe-inspiring goddess Hera, Honor Blackman filling out a titanic toga like nobody's business.

IBIMB, as the young people say.

Movies released
Ted released, 2012
Transformers: Dark of the Moon released, 2011
War of the Worlds released 2005

It could be argued that Ted is just a comedy, but I consider the fantasy element strong enough to place it in the genre category.

Prediction:1978: Traveling to the future, the time travelers endanger a mission to Mars.

Predictor: The Time Tunnel, aired in 1966

Reality: The show is part of the era when optimism for space travel was at its peak. NASA was sending people into space preparing for the moon landing. It was hard to foresee that the moon missions after Neil Armstrong's first step would feel like weaker and weaker sequels diluting the franchise.

Not unlike Shrek.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!


A prediction from James Blish about the future of religion.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!