Safety Coffins, Sleeping Beauty, and a Rambling Lemming

Coffins with bells mounted topside that would ring if the occupant pulled a cord aren't as silly as they may seem. The idea wasn't that the dead might want room service.

Safety coffins met a need, or fueled fears, of being buried alive. Back in the 'good old days' of Cholera epidemics, that fear wasn't entirely unreasonable. The Lemming does not miss the 'good old days:' at all.

Then there's the Donora death fog of 1948. Oddly enough, "Happy Days" didn't mention it. Not once. It was set in the 1950s: the sitcom, not what happened in Donora.

Happy thoughts. The Lemming really should think happy thoughts.

Happy wasn't particularly perturbed when a fugitive took refuge in the home he shared with — those miners weren't minors, but were they related, and why didn't Merryweather keep an eye on — never mind.

That was Disney's "Sleeping Beauty:" a heartwarming tale of true love and spinning wheels; or a cautionary tale, chronicling the tragic consequences of Maleficent's hiring practices. Really, couldn't she have found one goon who knew that humans grow?

Growth happens, and so to seasons, which is why trees have growth rings, but folks who study dendrochronology apparently aren't called dendrochronologists. Maybe because they'd get confused with dental hygienists, or start thinking that their job was writing a chronology for some tree.

None of which explains why the Lemming is rambling today. There's an interesting explanation for that, or might be: if the Lemming knew why three days of work abruptly fell into the digital abyss Wednesday evening.

Instead of regularly-scheduled programming, or research, or writing, or whatever it is that the Lemming does to get these posts ready, the Lemming spent most of Thursday doing Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday's work again. A one-to-three compression ratio, or is it three-two-one-we have liftoff?

The Lemming needs coffee. Or sleep. Yes: definitely sleep. There's no question about it, Dave: and the Lemming is not going to get started on HAL 9000's descent into madness.

Utterly-unrelated posts:

• "That's No Carp! That's a TENCH!"
  (January 20, 2012)
• " 'Cancer Causes Cell Phones!' - or, not"
  (July 18, 2011)
• "Mr. Basler's Worst Men's Fashions, 2010"
  (December 10, 2010)
• " '...Darling Son and That Person You Married....' "
  (December 8, 2010)
• "An Idea Whose Time Has Come? Fashion Police Dogs - and Wolverines"
  (October 19, 2009)

Architecture of Star Wars: a List of Favorites

"The Architecture of Star Wars"
Sebastian J, ArchDaily (June 16, 2009)

"Many of us, long before we even knew about architecture[,] dreamed about a fantastic world in a galaxy far far away. Nowadays, Star Wars continue to surprise people all around the world, and we can now see the movie with a different eye. Perhaps, the architect's eye.

"At The Architect's Journal, they selected the best Star Wars buildings. The top ten, after the break...."

"...4. CORUSCANT, THE WHOLE THING. Like adding New York to Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong, then squaring the result. The capital of the Old Republic takes urban sprawl to the extreme and realises the vision of Greek City planner Constantinos Doxiadis of an ecumeonpolis: a single city that covers the whole of a planet. The 'New Architecture' style common to the Senate Area of Coruscant is characterised by Manhattan-like skyscrapers nestled among blade-thin obelisks that resemble the soaring minarets of Cairo...."

Each of the countdown's 10 items has a picture - some of which look like clips from the Star Wars movies. It's mostly fun, but the Lemming thinks Sebastian J made an important point with that first sentence. It's likely that some architects got interested in that field after going 'wow!' during a Star Wars movie. Or seeing a warehouse getting built.

It's a huge stretch to call the Star Wars movies 'inspirational:' but the Lemming thinks it's okay for folks to let their imaginations get fired up by shows like that.

"Ecumenopolis?"

Here's what Wikipedia says about the word: "Ecumenopolis (from Greek: οικουμένη, meaning world, and πόλις (polis) meaning city, thus a city made of the whole world; pl. ecumenopolises or ecumenopoleis) is a word invented in 1967 by the Greek city planner Constantinos Doxiadis to represent the idea that in the future urban areas and megalopolises would eventually fuse and there would be a single continuous worldwide city as a progression from the current urbanization and population growth trends...."

It's a cool idea, and one that's been a science fiction staple for generations. We've got something that's almost like part of an ecumenopolis today: the stretch of urbanized land between Washington, D.C., and New York City, on North America's east coast. A word for real-world analogs to Isaac Asimov's Trantor, or Lucas's Coruscant, is "megalopolis." That's "a very large urban complex (usually involving several cities and towns)." (Princeton's WordNet) There's one on the east coast of North America, running from around Boston to Washington, D.C..

The Lemming's discussed whacking great cities in science fiction, in another blog:

• "Daniel Boone and the Megalopolis"
  Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (March 5, 2010)
• "Getting Details Right: The Vast, Huge, and Very Large City Of The Future"
  Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (June 25, 2009)

What Star Wars' architecture has going for it is partly that it borrows from more-or-less familiar science fiction art of the 20th century - and that someone saw to it that structures in the movies looked like someone might actually be able to use them.

And that's another topic.

Not-entirely-unrelated posts:

• "Sydney Opera House: Lego Version"
  (February 22, 2012)
• "Houston, Texas; Civic Pride; Futuristic Architecture; and Admiral Horatio Nelson"
  (February 1, 2012)
• "A 21st Century Look at 19th Century Visions of the 20th Century"
  (January 4, 2012)
• "Minneapolis Skyways: Warm Winter Walking"
  (November 9, 2011)
• "Shanghai World Financial Center: Amazing Architecture, a Disgruntled Dragon, and Getting a Grip"
  (October 19, 2011)

Eleven; and Why is Six Afraid of Seven?

Earlier today, the Lemming promised - or threatened - to come up with another post. This is it.

Today is November 11, 2011. In other words, it's the 11th day of the 11th month of the 11th year after the year 2000: which is when the Y2K bug didn't bring civilization to its knees.

The number 11 is, of course, just simply fraught with purport, import, and significance: to say nothing of meaning, nuance, and overtone. Like, it's the number that keeps 10 from running into 12. Which reminds the Lemming of this bit of wisdom: "Why is six afraid of seven? Because seven ate nine!"

A Wikipedia article (not one of its best) reveals this astounding fact: 11 "is the first number which cannot be counted with a human's eight fingers and two thumbs additively." Amazing! If you're on Earth, see if you can find a human and verify this claim. Or, not. Come to think of it, you probably are human, and can try the experiment yourself.

The number 11 is trebly significant since it appears three times in the title of "11 11 11."

And 11 11 11 is the date on which another motion picture is released. Or escaped, depending on your point of view:

"Movies opening 11/11"
Minneapolis Star-Tribune (November 5, 2011)

"...Immortals (R) A mortal man is chosen by Zeus to lead the fight against a ruthless king. With Luke Evans, Henry Cavill and Mickey Rourke...."

There's more about "Immortals" (2011) at the IMDB website:

"...Eons after the Gods won their mythic struggle against the Titans, a new evil threatens the land. Mad with power, King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) has declared war against humanity. Amassing a bloodthirsty army of soldiers disfigured by his own hand, Hyperion has scorched Greece in search of the legendary Epirus Bow, a weapon of unimaginable power forged in the heavens by Ares. Only he who possesses this bow can...."
(IMDB.com)

Somehow, the Lemming will restrain the urge to spend several hours and dollars for the privilege of viewing that cinematographic work at the local theater. Now, if a re-release of "My Neighbor Totoro" (1988) was playing - - - and that's another topic.

Not-entirely-unrelated posts:

• "Lemming Tracks: The Lemming Hits the Big Six-Oh"
  (October 1, 2011)
• "The Neutrinos are Coming! 2012 and Hollywood Science"
  (November 16, 2009)
• "Z2K? Zune Media Players: Tick Tock Tick Tick Erk!"
  (January 1, 2009)
• "Friday the 13th: The Geek Approach"
  (June 13, 2008)
• "Triskaidekaphobia: More than Friday the 13th"
  (June 13, 2008)

"UP" House for Sale: Balloons Not Included?

" 'Up' for Sale: Cartoon House Comes to Life"
Colby Hochmuth, FoxNews.com (July 14, 2011)

"...A Utah builder has painstakingly built a house to be an exact real-life replica of the iconic animated home that took flight in the 2009 Disney film 'Up.'

"The project started when Blair Bangerter, co-owner of Bangerter Homes, saw the movie 'Up' which, with the help of a bunch of helium balloons, flies off to the wilds of South America with its 78-year-old owner...."

"...The house is selling for around $400,000 and Bangerter is looking for the perfect buyer....

"...While the asking price may be a little hefty for the Utah neighborhood where average home prices float in the $270,000 range, Bangerter hopes someone will be able to see past that.

"A reason why the price is so high, Bangerter says, is because a lot of the house had to be specially made and designed to resemble the original house from the film....

Make that closely resemble the UP house. Bangerter had a copy of the film on his laptop, referring to it more than 100 times during construction.

Still, there are some things a non-virtual house probably can't do - like float away, lifted by a gargantuan agglomeration of particolored party balloons.

'Mere Promotional Tactic?' There's Got to be Easier Ways

"...taking a cartoon home and making it life-size was challenging to build. The team found difficulties mimicking the pitch of the roof, the stairs, windows, and some of the small details of the house....

"...For those who say that Bangerter's project has just been a mere promotional tactic, he says it is something that has come from his heart.

" 'I'll be sad to say goodbye to it, its been a project a year in the making, but I hope someone with a great imagination will be able to call this place home. "
(FoxNews.com)

The Lemming's pretty sure that Mr. Bangerter knew how much attention an "UP" replica house would attract. But the Lemming's also pretty sure that there are easier - and less expensive - ways to get attention. Doing your own television ads, wearing full academic robes topped by a propeller beanie, comes to mind.

Not quite the same sort of attention as the "UP" house - but attention nonetheless.

If you're in the Salt Lake, Utah, area later this month, you could take a look at Mr. Bangertner's project -

"...Bangerter Homes brought the home to life for the 65th Annual Salt Lake Parade of Homes, which opens July 29 and runs until Aug. 14, where the public can get a close-up tour...."
(FoxNews.com)

Would the Lemming buy a house that looked like the one in "UP"? Probably not. It's not that the Lemming lacks imagination. Mostly, it's because the Lemming already has a pretty good place to live, here in central Minnesota: and $400,000, although the house is probably worth every cent, is more than the Lemming has to spend.

Still, the Lemming hopes that someone with the budget and the lively imagination buys the place: and thoroughly enjoys it.

Vaguely-related posts:

• "Hearst/Davies/Godfather Movie House: a Bargain at $95,000,000"
  (December 5, 2010)
• "Missouri's Guitar Mansion Sold: to 'Surprised Bidder' "
  (October 19, 2010)
• " 'Swanky Treehouse' in Oregon: The Wilkinson Residence"
  (February 9, 2010)
• "Seven Very Strange-Looking Houses"
  (August 26, 2009)
• "That's One Pink House!"
  (June 25, 2009)

Elizabeth Taylor, 1932–2011

"Elizabeth Taylor: The life, the looks, the movies, the smarts, the talent"
Hadley Freeman, guardian.co.uk (March 23, 2011)

"The Cleopatra costume will, surely, dominate the news reports but with all respect to the Egyptian queen, Liz was bigger than that.

"Elizabeth Taylor evokes more images than the number of husbands she had. She was the breathtakingly beautiful child who - unlike her near contemporary, Judy Garland - seemed to slip into adulthood unscarred by her precocious professional success; the sultry dramatic actress; the compulsive bride, who went through husbands like fashion trends...."

It's not a particularly breathless, or sentimental, obituary: for which the Lemming is duly grateful. However, the Guardian piece focuses more on Taylor's adherence to contemporary mores, and less on her remarkable professional career.

The sparse IMDB bio, "Elizabeth Taylor," does a better job, in the Lemming's opinion: by simply listing the titles that she played in.

Elizabeth Taylor played rolls in The Simpsons (1992), Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1992), Sweet Bird of Youth (1989), Doctor Faustus (1967), Quo Vadis (1951), and - of course - National Velvet (1944).

IMDB, and quite a few other sources, say that she won two Oscars.

That's fine: but the Lemming thinks it's more impressive that Elizabeth Taylor played a wide variety of roles in dozens of movies and television episodes: and had what it takes to keep getting re-hired from 1942 to 2001.

St. Patrick's Day, Michael Gough, and Love

"Batman's 'butler' Michael Gough dies at age 94"
The Associated Press, via News10.net (March 17, 2011)

"...He died of old age at home in England on Thursday, surrounded by family, his ex-wife Anneke Wills said through her agent.

"Wills said in an obituary posted on the Doctor Who website: 'As his body was deteriorating this week, he said that he wanted to hang on for St. Patrick's Day. And he did, just. In the end ... there is only love.'..."

His IMDB biography says that Michael Gough had roles from the voice of the Dodo Bird in Alice in Wonderland (2010) to Spintho in Androcles and the Lion (1946) And, like the AP article said, Alfred in Batman movies (1997, 1995, 1992, 1989) and Dr. Who (1966-1983).

More:

• "Michael Gough (I) (1917–2011)"
  IMDB

Technophobic Movies: A Top (Bottom?) Ten List

"10 Most Technophobic Movies"
Entertainment, Feature, Technology, College Crunch (January 20, 2011)

" 'Technophobia' is a pretty easy word to break down: fear of technology, specifically of advanced computers or other devices and a belief that they will lead to humanity's ruin. Although a technophobe sounds like a neo-Luddite, it actually goes a lot deeper than that. What's more, technophobia pops up in movies far more often than you might think. The easy target when it comes to tech-based movies are those films that show an egregious misunderstanding of how the Internet works, or that show older generations struggling to get along in a digital age. But real technophobia deals with tech gone awry, taking over a person or city or world in order to execute its own lethal agenda...."

Hats off to this post's writer: Somebody noticed the drearily-familiar assumption behind WALL-E's setting. Then there are the Star Trek references. The post missed The Ultimate Computer, where Star Fleet decided to see what would happen if they plugged an insane computer into the Enterprise's flight controls. I'll get back to that.

The 'top ten technophobic films' named in the post:

• The Matrix
• WALL-E
• The Terminator
• Frankenstein
• The Day the Earth Stood Still
• Metropolis
• Demon Seed
• Jurassic Park
• Avatar
• Star Trek
  • Space Seed
    • Wrath of Kahn
  • Borgs

Each has a brief discussion, plus a short video clip.

The Lemming thinks the post's author gave pretty good arguments for each film's technophobia.

It might be more challenging to find a list of 10 films made in the last half-century that addressed the role of technology in society - and didn't lapse into hand-wringing anguish at some point.

- - - And We're All Gonna Die!

There isn't all that much difference, in the Lemming's opinion, between the lot who've been selling 'end time prophecy' books over the last half-century or so; and those dreadfully serious folks who've been selling books about the ice age and food riots and all sorts of terrible things. In both cases, their target audiences don't seem to notice that - for at least the last half-century - they've been wrong.

That won't stop a true believer, of course. Just because we aren't about 10 years into an ice age now - and snow still falls now and again in England - well, that doesn't count. The end-times folks apparently decide that somebody miscounted the number of times "seven" is mentioned in Deuteronomy - or whatever the basis of the fizzled prophecy was. The fashionably intellectual agonizers start reading books by a new set of 'experts.' In either case, life goes anxiously on. The Lemming's ranted about this before:

• "Lemming Tracks: Blasphemy! Or, 'We're All Gonna Die' Predictions That Fizzled"
  (December 30, 2010)

Technology is Dangerous!

Actually, technology is dangerous: as anybody who has touched a hot kettle knows. The Lemming could claim that if some arrogant maniac hadn't started singing meat before eating it, we'd all be nice and safe: and hoping that the hyenas didn't find us.

There'd be some truth to that. Fire is dangerous. As the caveman in the cartoon said to his fellow-old-coots, "just wait: someday it'll get out of control and burn the entire village." He was right, by the way. Even now, fires sometimes get out of hand. Remember The Great Fire of London? Or the annual wildfires around Los Angeles that occasionally destroy houses and kill people?

And yet, we keep using fire. Maybe because on the whole there's big enough gains to justify the risks.

Or maybe we're just crazy:

• "Earth May Not Be a 'Class M' Planet"
  (December 5, 2009)
  Particularly
  • Doesn't Everybody Dream of Flying?
• "Move the Planet - or - Safety First"
  Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (December 9, 2009)
  Particularly
  • The Gill Theory of Human Evolution

In the Lemming's opinion, by the way, 'mother nature' is about as frail and helpless as Queen Boudicca - and the Lemming's ranted about that, too:

• "Frail, Delicate Little Mother Nature?!"
  (December 20, 2009)

Dangerous Technology and the Lemming

A technophobe is "a person who dislikes or avoids new technology." (Princeton's WordNet)

The Lemming is not a technophobe.

Instead of fearing being caught up in some sort of "overwhelmed hive mind," the Lemming loves the Internet. Finally, there's a way to get at large amounts of data at a reasonable speed. (January 27, 2010) 'Reasonable' from the Lemming's point of view, that is.

There are problems with the Internet - but it's not the 'net, in the Lemming's opinion. Wherever we've got people - we've got trouble. It's a sort of package deal. There never was, in the Lemming's opinion, a 'good old days.' (A Catholic Citizen in America (November 28, 2010)

And living in a world without running water and antibiotics was not all that much fun. In the Lemming's opinion.

The notion that there never was a 'good old days' isn't, really, all that pessimistic - not as the Lemming sees it. It's just a recognition that folks who didn't have to deal with short circuits and grass clippings had other problems. Like the manure that piled up in cities - and that's about enough for one post.

Related posts:

• In this blog
  • "Nine Decades of Robots Turning on Their Masters"
    (January 25, 2011)
  • "Fretting About Twitter"
    (January 22, 2011)
  • "Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide Now! Or, Not"
    (January 3, 2011)
  • "Lemming Tracks: Climate Change is the New Global Warming?"
    (December 6, 2010)
  • "Lemming Tracks: Ice Age, Global Warming, Climate Change, and Living Scared"
    (November 19, 2010)
  • "Tofu Turkeys, Genetically Altered Foods, and the Evil Eye"
    (November 14, 2009)
  • "Large Hadron Collider Stopped by God! Time Travel Sabotaging Atom-Smasher! (He Told a Reporter?!)"
    (October 19, 2009)
• In other blogs
  • "Mirrors, Television, and MP3 Players"
    A Catholic Citizen in America (November 6, 2010)
  • "Dangerous Technology and Common Sense"
    Another War-on-Terror Blog (April 6, 2010)
  • "HAL 9000, Skynet, and C3PO"
    Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (January 26, 2010)
  • "Global Warming, End Times - 'We're All Gonna Die' Over the Last 45 Years Or So"
    A Catholic Citizen in America (October 3, 2009)
  • "Inventions: Strange; Feared; and Yet-to-Come"
    Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (August 25, 2009)
  • "- - - 'And We're All Gonna Die!' "
    Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (June 30, 2009)
  • "DC Gun Ban, Online Censorship, Individual Rights, and Power to the People"
    Another War-on-Terror Blog (June 27, 2008)

---

A tip of the hat to Florine Church, for drawing my attention to the College Crunch post.

The Terminator, Astro Boy, Bender, Marvin, and More

"All Hail Our Robot Overlords! Sci-Fi’s Best Bots"
Underwire, Wired (January 25, 2011)

"Czech playwright Karel Capek popularized the term robot in the 1921 play R.U.R., spawning a deluge of artificial life forms in popular culture.

"Wired.com assembled this list of androids, cyborgs and other memorable machines that left their indelible imprints on movies and television shows in the ensuing nine decades...."

The list starts with Futurama's Bender, then the things from The Matrix. The list is a pretty broad selection - from Atro Boy to those squishy bots in the Alien films, including the Terminator and Marvin the Paranoid Android from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Poster." Speaking of Marvin, the Lemming thinks he gets some of the best lines in the movie. But that's just one Lemming's opinion.

One more thing - there's a photo or picture with each bot's bio.

Related post:

• "Nine Decades of Robots Turning on Their Masters"
  (January 25, 2011)

TRON Legacy: Pretty Good Movie

TRON | The Official Site

That photo doesn't have much to do with TRON Legacy, unless you live in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. TRON Legacy has been running at Main Street Theatre, that cluster of brightish lights with a marquee: where my son and I finally saw the movie.

The 3D technology is impressive - and the Lemming is learning how to see through those special glasses.

Tech aside, TRON Legacy is impressive - particularly since it's a sequel. The Lemming's impression is that sequels tend to be more of a copy of a creative original: and that's almost another topic.

The Lemming's inner nitpicker noticed similarities between the style of Flynn's Safehouse in the virtual world and 2001 A Space Odyssey's last few scenes. There was the same glowing floor, and sparsely formal decor. Then there's the way that names like CLU and QUORRA sound just like "Clue" and "Corra" when pronounced. As for historical parallels to Clu's rousing speech: but the Lemming's in no mood to nitpick. Not while listening to Daft Punk's music from the movie.

As usual, Disney Studios haven't left many marketing opportunities untried. Which is fine by the Lemming: The official site is fairly rich in content - including a do-it-yourself recognizer you can print out and fold into three dimensions.

Life on Other Worlds: Limited Only by Imagination and Production Budgets

This post isn't about Star Trek. On the other hand, the original series' first words are a pretty good introduction: "...to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations...."
(Star Trek opening narration, via IMDB.com)

Life Out There: Some Science, Some Fiction

Life on other worlds isn't a particularly new idea. For example, practicing Catholics have been forbidden to claim that there can't be life elsewhere in the universe. Since the 13th century. (A Catholic Citizen in America (April 19, 2010))

During the 20th century, the idea of life on other worlds got popular: particularly among editors, authors, artists and readers of science fiction magazines.

The results were, occasionally, somewhat well-thought-out.


(from Tales of Future Past, used w/o permission)

Don't laugh: that 1939 illustration was made four decades before a robot would land on Mars, long before we realized that Martian air was really thin, and that Martian water was frozen. Given what serious astronomers knew and guessed at the time, a human on Mars might need a pressure suit - but creatures like that big-eared Martian might find it comfortable.

An imaginative, informed, writer and artist wouldn't have much trouble making pictures of aliens like that 'Hugo Gernsback' Martian.

Star Trek, Star Wars, and Dead Martians

A casting director for a television series like Star Trek? Human beings come in a relatively narrow range of shapes and sizes: and special effects technology is a tad more pricey than dipping into a studio's wardrobe for a suit of clothing appropriate for some 'real' setting.

Which is a major reason why, in the Lemming's opinion, Star Trek's 'aliens' looked so remarkably human.


(from Ephemeral Isle, used w/o permission)

The first Star Wars movie (1977), raised the bar a little. But even then, most of the aliens in the famous cantina scene looked like people in alien suits. Which, for the most part, they were. Budget and technology again.


(from Wookipedpia, used w/o permission)

Then you've got your science fiction convention folks.


(Robert Sorbo, via Reuters, used w/o permission)

That's a photo of folks going to a VIP party for the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle, back in 2004, by the way: perhaps not quite a science fiction convention.

Not all television and movie science fiction portrayed aliens by putting funny clothes and makeup on actors. The plot of "Quatermass and the Pit," AKA "Five Million Years to Earth," for example, involved Martians who were very sincerely not human.


(from Tales of Future Past, used w/o permission)

No doubt about it: that fellow in the foreground isn't human. At all. Producing a screen drama with characters who were strictly special-effects work may have been more practical, since the 'Quatermass' Martians spent most of the 97 minutes being very, very dead.

Space Aliens: Seriously?

Remembering the 'flying saucer' silliness of the 50s, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and The Three Stooges in Orbit, the Lemming might be expected to dismiss the idea of real, live space aliens as 'science fiction:' outlandish, impossible, but good enough for 'escapist fiction.'

The sort of thing in the original Lost in Space series, Killer Klowns From Outer Space and Plan 9 From Outer Space? The Lemming does not take those 'aliens' very seriously.

What we may find on Titan, under the surface of Mars or Ceres, or circling another star? The Lemming sees no reason to assume that Earth is the only place with creepy crawlies - well, creeping and crawling.

And that's another topic.

Posts about aliens, silly, serious and somewhere in between:

• "Alien Contact: National Geographic Documentary"
  (January 1, 2011)
• "Carry-Out, Neptunian Style - or - What 14 Flopwaps Will Buy"
  (December 10, 2009)
• "Beautiful Space Princesses, Almost Certainly Not: Flying Whales, Maybe"
  Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (December 8, 2009)
• "Astrobiology, the Vatican, and the Meaning of Our Existence"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (November 12, 2009)

More related posts, at

• "A Serious Search for Other Worlds, Life, and - Maybe - Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence"

A Sentimental, Heartwarming Holiday Movie: Despicable Me

"Despicable Me - Own it on Blu-ray & DVD 12/14 - Double Pack Trailer"

DespicableMeMovie, YouTube (November 22, 2010)
video, 2:31

The Lemming enjoyed this heartwarming, sentimental tale of a mad scientist and the three children who join him as he's planning to steal the moon.

The DespicableMeMovie video is clearly intended to encourage folks to rush out and buy DVD/Blue Ray copies of the movie - and the three new mini-movies, featuring the Minions. It's also entertaining - the music alone was perky enough to keep the Lemming's attention for two and a half minutes.

Bear in mind that the Lemming got about four hours sleep last night: so your experience may vary. Actually, your experience might vary even if the Lemming had gotten his full eight hours.

The Lemming liked those little chaps.

The Minions.

Beans with goggles and an unlikely complexion.

Hearst/Davies/Godfather Movie House: a Bargain at $95,000,000

"Former Hearst-Davies mansion for sale at $95 million"
Lauren Beale, Money & Company, Los Angeles Times blog (September 20, 2010)

"In a sign of the times, the onetime Beverly Hills home of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst and actress Marion Davies, which was listed for sale briefly three years ago at $165 million, is back on the market at the 2010 price of $95 million. Its owner, attorney-investor Leonard M. Ross, filed for bankruptcy protection last week.

"The reduced price is not surprising given the condition of the housing market. Median home prices in Southern California have declined 43% since their peak in 2007, according to MDA DataQuick, matching the price drop reflected on the new listing.

"Called Beverly House, the 1920s mansion has had fairy tale moments. John and Jacqueline Kennedy honeymooned there. But it was also used to film scenes from the movie 'The Godfather,' including the one in which a horse's head was found in a bed.

"The longtime current owner filed for Chapter 11 on Wednesday even though his assets exceed his liabilities, court documents show. A press release announcing the sale said 'unusual circumstances' and 'bank maneuverings' led Ross to seek protection under federal bankruptcy laws...."

That drop in asking price - from $165,000,000 to $95,000,000 - is pretty steep. Even so, the Lemming won't be bidding on that property. It's nice to look at pictures of places like that, though.

Besides: this way, the Lemming gets the fun of thinking about a massive residence like that - without having to worry about maintenance or keeping up payments on the mortgage.

There's a larger version of that photo in the L.A. Times blog post.

And Now, for Something Completely Different: Two Minutes of UP

"UP: Stuff I'm Going to Do"

DisneyPixar, YouTube (December 16, 2009)
video, 2:00

"...Carl looks through Ellie's 'Stuff I'm Going to Do' scrapbook."

This video makes a little more sense if you've seen the movie UP: but the Lemming thinks it'll do as a stand-alone vignette.

Tangled Trailer: Grounded for Life

"Tangled: Grounded For Life"

disneyanimation, YouTube (November 5, 2010)
video, 1:22

"...What happens when the greatest thief in the Kingdom accidentally stumbles on its longest-grounded resident? Check out the latest trailer for TANGLED and get ready to join Flynn Rider and Rapunzel on an epic adventure!"

This trailer for the new Disney film (coming November 24, they say) is in the style of those old fifties 'educational' films. It's pretty good entertainment by itself.

For the Lemming. I also like Pixar's Toy Story movies, the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command animated series, and Meet the Robinsons - so your experience may vary.

Zasu Pitts: There's an Explanation for That

"ZaSu Pitts" Biography
allmovie

"According to her own account, actress ZaSu Pitts was given her curious cognomen because she was named for two aunts, Eliza and Susan. Born in Kansas, Pitts moved with her family to California, where at age 19 she began her film career. Her first starring role was as an ugly duckling who finds true love in 1919's Better Times. Her calculated vagueness and fluttery hand gestures earned Pitts comedy roles from the outset, but director Erich Von Stroheim saw dramatic potential in the young actress. He cast her as the grasping, money-mad wife in his masterpiece Greed (1924), and she rose to the occasion...."

allmovie's biography includes embedded links to their pages on movies and other people involved in Zasu Pitts' career.

About the odd capitalization in Zasu Pitt's name? The Lemming's seen it written both ways in competently-presented biographies, and decided to go with the conventional presentation, with one capital letter at the start of the name.

Another online biography of Zasu Pitts has a different writing style, a different, and smaller, selection of information: but does have some photos. And a quote:

---

"ZaSu Pitts (1894-1963)"
goldensilents.com

" 'I was what they called a feature player, never a star. They say I was in 500 films, everything but the newsreels.' - ZaSu Pitts

"The character actress ZaSu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas on January 3rd, 1894. Her first name ZaSu was derived from a combination of names of two of her aunts on her father's side, Eliza and Susan. ZaSu received her education in Santa Cruz, California. She worked for many studios, including Universal, Metro, and Famous Players-Lasky, appearing in many of their features and comedies. Some films of note for ZaSu were 1917's 'The Little Princess' and 'Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm', both opposite Mary Pickford...."

IMDb.com includes 217 of her films in her bio's filmography:

---

"Zasu Pitts (1894–1963)"
IMDb

According to IMDb, her name didn't show up in the credits for "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm," she had an "undetermined role," and her first screen appearance was in "Uneasy Money," a 1917 short.

There's only so much that will fit on one readable page online: reducing a career that lasted about a half-century, heavy editing is needed.

Zasu Pitts didn't let cancer keep her from acting: although apparently it slowed her down:

---

"...ZaSu Pitts died in 1963, shortly after completing her final film appearance in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and just a few days after her last TV guest assignment on Burke's Law."
(allmovie)

The Lemming's hat is off to Zasu Pitts: who made the transitions from silent to sound movies, and television. Not everybody was able to do that.

More:

• "Zasu Pitts"
  IMDb

Star Wars Lightsabers: From Faucet Knob to Jet Engine Component

"Science Fact and Fiction: How a Lightsaber Works"
Karl Tate, TechNewsDaily (August 11, 2010)
Star Wars Lightsabers: From Faucet Knob to Jet Engine Component
I don't generally do this, but here's the entire article from TechNewsDaily, pretty much as it was presented. I modified the embedding code supplied by the publication to fit this blog, but I've retained their citation and links.


Source TechNewsDaily.com: Where Technology Meets Daily Life

I'd heard and read that the original lightsabers had been rotating rods - but most of what's in this article is new to me. Like Luke Skywalker's lightsaber being (in part) a Garflex photoflash handle.

Evil Masterminds! Colossal Thefts! Minions and a Photocopier!

"Despicable Me"
IMDB.com (Universal Pictures, 2010)

"...When a criminal mastermind uses a trio of orphan girls as pawns for a grand scheme, he finds himself profoundly changed by the growing love between them...."

" 'Despicable Me' turns Universal into a digital animation film player"
MiamiHerald.com (July 23, 2010)

"For Universal Pictures, all it took was some puny yellow minions to tackle the giants of animation.

"The studio's movie 'Despicable Me,' about a villain who enlists an army of yapping subordinates to assist in his nefarious deeds, racked up $118.4 million in its first 10 days at the box office, granting Universal something that has long eluded it: a family-friendly animated blockbuster.

"Such a windfall represents a turning point for the General Electric Co.-owned studio, which has lagged behind rivals Pixar Animation Studios, DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Fox's Blue Sky Studios in establishing a foothold in the increasingly popular genre of digitally animated movies...."

I saw "Despicable Me" over the weekend. IMDB.com shows the film's rating as "Rated PG for rude humor and mild action." Fair enough. The humor is rather rude, and the action is mild - although that roller-coaster ride, wearing 3D glasses, was just short of gastrologically unsettling. Moving along.

I agree with the Miami Herald's assessment, that it's "family-friendly" - but that's me, and my family. With well upwards of 6,000,000,000 people around, there's probably someone, somewhere, who's offended, appalled, affronted, or insulted by the movie. What off-duty Minions were doing with the photocopier, for example, will almost certainly set somebody off.

The rest of us, I think, can sit back and enjoy the show. I'd call it "heartwarming:" but first, the term's been overused; and second, with all those flammable chemicals in Gru's lab, somebody might get the wrong idea.

Sort-of-related posts:

• "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: Reset"
  (June 25, 2010)
• "Killer Tomatoes: How Could I Have Missed This Classic?"
  (May 3, 2010)
• " 'The A-Team' is Back - With Pretty Good Casting"
  (February 8, 2010)
• "The Neutrinos are Coming! 2012 and Hollywood Science"
  (November 16, 2009)
• "Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Noah's Umbrella: What's the Big Idea?"
  (July 28, 2009)

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: Reset

"Toy Story 3 - Spanish Buzz"

DisneyPixar, YouTube (June 22, 2010)
video 2:10

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. Spanish dance. Dancing with the Stars. Pixar.

And a cartoon hat that was too wide.

DisneyPixar's YouTube video is definitely a promotional piece for "Toy Story 3:" and fun to watch. My opinion. One thing I appreciate about it is the quick glimpses at the production process for the film.

'Toy Story 3' - Buzz? No, Really: That was in the Headline

"'Toy Story 3' lives up to buzz with $41M opener"
The Associated Press (June 19, 2010)

" 'Toy Story 3' has become the favorite plaything for moviegoers as the animated sequel heads to a $100-million-plus opening weekend.

"The latest hit from Disney's Pixar Animation took in $41 million in its first day Friday...."

I know that "buzz," in this context, can mean "a confusion of activity and gossip." (Princeton's WordNet) But considering that a key character in the Toy Story movies is Buzz Lightyear of Star Command - that headline is one of the more delightfully painful plays on words it's been my pleasure to read in the news for a long time.

I'm planning to see "Toy Story 3" soon, by the way: and looking forward to the experience.

And Now, for Something Completely Different: A Shaggy Rabbit

"Milly"
Rosie, via Disapproving Rabbits (June 7, 2010)


(from Rosie, via Disapproving Rabbits, used w/o permission)

"Budget cuts at MGM."

That may be an 'in' joke, for folks who are familiar with American movie studios, their history, and their logos. Particularly MGM's Leo -->