Movie Review: The Changeling (1980)

 The Changeling (1980) directed by Peter Medak

New York composer John Russell (George C. Scott) loses his wife and daughter in a horrible accident which he witnesses. Months later, he moves to Seattle to teach at a university, more so to get away from bad memories. He winds up renting a house from the local historical society. It's an old house with a grand music room, seemingly perfect if a little too large for one man to live in. He starts hearing noises that have no logical explanation. The noises lead him to a hidden room where a young boy was killed. Russell is terrified and fascinated by the mystery. He calls in help from the psychiatry department of the university. In an unnerving seance, a medium makes contact with the ghost who provides some details that suggest the boy's true identity. The secret is not one that everyone wants to keep.

The movie is a quintessential slow-burn horror/mystery. The story moves at a slow pace, providing a lot of atmospheric music and odd scenes that gives the house a daunting and melancholic tone. The people from the historical society provide a slow but steady trickle of information (doing research before the age of the internet was a slow process). Scott gives the right level of frustration and determination to his character, making him very sympathetic. The gore is minimal but the depiction of the boy's death is very disturbing. The movie delivers on the chills and provides a satisfying ending.

Highly recommended--easily in the top ten haunted house movies ever made.

Book Review: One Trick Pony by Nathan Hale

 One Trick Pony by Nathan Hale

Three kids are scavenging a post-apocalyptic landscape when they find a robotic horse buried in a tunnel. The tunnel turns out to be an elevator shaft, down which they go. At the bottom they find a room full of electronics, screens, and robots. They turn on some stuff, which turns out to be a bad decision. The pipers come. The pipers are giant, odd-looking creatures who steal technology by forming bubbles around the equipment. The pipers seek out active machines and electronics. The kids flee on the horse, hoping to lose the pipers and make it back to their village. The village is a mobile town with minimal electronics. It's always on the move and always collecting choice bits of technology. The villagers are trying to save human knowledge in hopes that the apocalypse will end at some point and civilization can be restored.

The story is intriguing and a different take on the post-apocalyptic genre. Hale's art is very similar to his Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales series, with minimal colors. The humor is very similar too, though this is a bit more of a serious story and is based on a story his grandfather told him.

Recommended.

Book Review: Neuromancer by William Gibson

 Neuromancer by William Gibson

Case is a "cowboy," that is someone who can jack in to the cyberverse and manipulate that reality, which in turn will have results in actual reality. He's in bad shape when the story starts. A previous employer was unhappy with his work and messed up his central nervous system, essentially ending his talents. He lives in a bad neighborhood in Japan and spends a lot of time with alcohol and drugs. He's recruited by a new employer who has the resources to fix him, including altering his system so he gets no high from drugs. The mysterious employer wants to orchestrate a digital heist against a well-established and presumed impregnable artificial intelligence. Case is teamed up with Molly, a trained and enhanced assassin who is part bodyguard, part lover. They go through a series of adventures as they prepare for the heist and try to find out who is behind the job.

The story is exciting and fast-paced. I thought it was very similar to The Matrix or Inception, but the novel was published in 1984, so it must have inspired the movies. The book does not feel dated even though it's almost 40 years old. A lot of the tech is not developed yet, but we seem to be on our way to immersive virtual reality and convincing augmented reality. I liked the book a lot. There was nothing particularly deep or profound but as a cyberpunk action story, it is fun.

Recommended.

TV Review: The Umbrella Academy Season One (2019)

The Umbrella Academy Season One (2019) created by Steve Blackman based on the comics by Gerard Way

A group of adopted children (who are now grown) gather to bury their recently-deceased father. These aren't just any orphans--they were all born on the same day (October 1, 1989) to women who weren't pregnant the day before. Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) saw their unique circumstance and realized there might be more going on. He adopted seven of the forty-three children. As he raised them, they developed superpowers. He formed them into a tweenager team of superheroes called The Umbrella Academy. That's all long over. All the children have gone their separate ways and are trying to live their own lives. The funeral naturally leads them to question the uncertain circumstances under which Sir Reginald died. Especially when one lost sibling, Number Five (Aidan Gallagher), suddenly comes back from the future (his superpower is jumping in space and/or time). Five warns them that an apocalypse is eminent. The family has mixed feelings about starting up again, especially Vanya (Ellen Page), who exhibits no powers whatsoever, which has left her an outsider. She wrote a tell-all book about growing up in The Umbrella Academy and was estranged from her adoptive father. 

The siblings have a hard time working through their issues with each other, making saving the world difficult. An additional problem is two time-traveling assassins (Mary J. Blige and Cameron Britton) who are trying to take down Five, though they often get additional orders from their mysterious employers. They think Five is the key to stopping the apocalypse, which they want to happen for their own reasons. Five is searching for the key to starting the apocalypse, narrowing it down to fewer and fewer individuals. Could it be someone one of the siblings knows? Is it okay to kill someone to save billions of other lives on the Earth? Can they cooperate long enough to accomplish anything?

The siblings come off like real people, with a mix of emotions and motivations that generate family drama. They try to be regular people with varying degrees of success. Stepping back into the hero game is a lot harder for them. The actors do a good job and I did care for most of the characters. The premise is fantastic and full of potential. 

On the other hand, the plot moves very slowly. The show uses a lot of songs to enhance the visuals by contrasting or complementing or being ironic. The show is good-looking visually but feels padded out by the pseudo-music videos and other side stories that don't really go anywhere interesting. Especially egregious is the one episode where at the end time travel erases everything that happened (the episode is even called "The Day That Wasn't"). Rubbish time travel is a pet peeve of mine and this show had a bit too much of it. I found myself rolling my eyes more than once. They very ending 

Slightly recommended--it isn't terrible but I found it disappointing.

Streaming on Netflix.

A Walk Around UMBC Campus

We went for a walk around the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, campus. The campus is pretty far from downtown. It's spread out over some rolling hills just west and south of the city. 

The first thing we did was find a geocache. Our GPS led us to this map of campus. The cache turned out to be behind the kiosk/bus stop/whatever it is.

A campus map

Cold War Relic? is hidden in a spot where the cache placer used to come back in the 1950s. He says there was a military post but the only evidence left is the concrete ring. Everything else has gone back to nature.

A good spot for a cache

We walked down into the campus proper and came upon the Performing Arts and Humanities building, which had a large, interesting, and unidentified sculpture in front.

The first set of buildings

An art installation

Enjoying the sculpture

View from the building

View from the sculpture to where the two buildings meet

The benches nearby were not the best for sitting and relaxing.

Bench with a note

A bench not for sitting--must be an artistic statement

As we progressed, we found another sculpture that was also unidentified. A couple of dead trees?

Mysterious sculpture

Further along, we found a sculpture made from recyclable materials. The kids were very impressed with it. The label even says that it was made by the UMBC Kinetic Sculpture team. Still no name was given for the sculpture.

A fun sculpture

Less impressive from the front

An award-winning work

In the center of the academic buildings is The Quad, a rectangular grassy area with an outdoor pool on one end and the Commons at the other end. We were surprised to see swimmers out doing laps in the 50 degree weather. Those are committed athletes!

The pool

The Commons

By the university center (where all the fast food is), we saw some interesting picnic tables. The umbrellas are fancy. Not fancy looking, but a fancy design. Solar panels provide power to the diners (at least, if they brought plugs for their electronics).

What the table?

Power to the students!

A view with the solar panels

Nearby, a sculpture of the school's mascot stands guard. They chose someone local--a Chesapeake Bay Retriever. Usually my youngest son is very cautious around dogs but he was perfectly happy to pet this guy.

A gentle dog

The other view

A bunch of the buildings are named after donors to the school. The Sondheim Building even has a sculpture of Walter Sondheim!

Hanging out by his building

I think this trash can is named after this squirrel

The library pond didn't have any fish in it. It was very clean and very relaxing.

The Pond

A view to the library

The library looks very fancy. We didn't get to go inside since we are not students. Maybe someday.

Library entrance

On our way back to the car, we some some other houses. The greenhouse was not very big considering the size of the campus. Maybe they don't have a big agricultural program.

Greenhouse

The student housing across the street looked fairly normal and uninteresting.

Student housing

Near the greenhouse is the campus's plant. Haha!

Library eclipsed by facilities

Book Review: Star Trek: Best of Klingons by S. Tipton et al.

Star Trek: Best of Klingons written by Mike W. Barr, Scott Tipton, and David Tipton, art by Tom Sutton, Richard Villagran, and David Messina

This collection has two Klingon stories of unequal strengths.

The first is from DC Comics in the early 1980s. The story is set right after the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. A conflict on a border threatens to turn into war between the Federation and the Klingons. The Klingons have a secret base from which they are attacking Federation colonies and ships by the Neutral Zone. The Enterprise, with Kirk but no Spock, goes to investigate. They are caught up in events that bring both sides to the edge of war. More is going on than meets the eye as events unfold. The story is a fairly typical Star Trek story--it's fun and plays to the strengths of the characters. The art was sub-par and obviously the story does not fit with the film continuity.

The second story is Klingons: Blood Will Tell, a story of Klingon High Council official Kahnrah, who is debating about a significant vote he has to cast. Praxis (the Klingon moon) has exploded, condemning their home world to annihilation in thirty or forty years. The Council is deadlock on whether to ask the Federation for help or not. Kahnrah reflects on various historical encounters between humans and the Klingons, though most involve Captain Kirk. Kahnrah has to decide if the humans are trustworthy and, more importantly, if the Klingons can retain their identity by making such a decision. Seeing events like the Tribbles story from a Klingon perspective is very interesting and well-told by the authors. Even though the decision is a foregone conclusion for Star Trek fans, the narrative makes an interesting exploration of Klingon attitudes and general character. The art is good and the story does fit in with the film continuity, so those are pluses too.

Recommended, though the second story is much stronger and more interesting than the first.

Movie Review: Death Becomes Her (1992)

Death Becomes Her (1992) directed by Robert Zemeckis

Helen the writer (Goldie Hawn) and Madeline the actress (Meryl Streep) are childhood friends who are really more like competitors. In 1978, Helen brings her fiancee Ernest (Bruce Willis) to Madeline's Broadway show. The musical is a flop to everyone but Ernest, who falls for Madeline and marries her. Seven years later, Helen is an overweight couch potato who obsesses over Madeline. Meanwhile, Madeline and Ernest's marriage is on the rocks. His work as a plastic surgeon has morphed into work as an undertaker in Beverly Hills making the dead look good at their funerals. Madeline's acting career seems to be over. Seven more years later, Helen has slimmed down and written a best-selling book. She invites Ernest and Madeline to a swanky event in Los Angeles to meet for the first time. By this point, Madeline is extremely insecure about her looks--her quack of a plastic surgeon recommends she visit Lisle (Isabella Rossellini), who can make Mad's dreams of youthfulness a reality with a magic potion. Meanwhile, Helen seduces Ernest and convinces him to kill Mad with an elaborate scheme. The scheme never goes off because Ernest in an opportune moment pushes Madeline down their big marble staircase, breaking Mad's neck in several spots. While on the phone with Helen to celebrate the "accident," Madeline stands up with her head on backward and berates Ernest. The potion gave her eternal life along with eternal youth, but no protection from bodily harm. She's very mad about the situation. When Helen shows up, Madeline shoots her in the stomach. Helen doesn't die either, because she's had the same potion. They work out their differences and start plotting on how to keep Ernest in their lives since he can patch up their wounds. Even with Ernest's mousy cowardice, he's ready to leave because he can't handle the situation. Can he escape the fate worse than death that Helen and Madeline have fallen into?

The movie works on several levels. The special effects were top-of-the-line (Zemeckis had just finished the Back to the Future trilogy and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) and for the most part still hold up. The age make-up is effective and the injuries are playfully used in the story. The dark comedy works as a satire of people's obsession with youth and beauty, but mostly themselves. The ending is set another 37 years later, with Ernest having lived a fulfilling life after leaving Helen and Madeline. The preacher says that Ernest achieved immortal life by having children and leaving behind benevolent institutions, a surprising insight into the nature of the person and the value of a good legacy. In addition to the dark comedy/special effects extravaganza there's a bit of philosophy thrown in. What's not to like?

Recommended.

Book Review: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Binti is a 16 year-old girl who has been accepted to Ommza Uni, a prestigious university off-world. Binti is also a member of the Himba, a people from Africa who live in a desert by a lake. Locally, they are a minority and looked down upon by the Khoush. Binti runs away from home because she thinks her family will not let her leave. The Himba don't interact with the outside world on Earth, much less the rest of the universe. Binti's interplanetary flight is hijacked by the Meduse, an alien species once at war with Khoush. They kill everyone on the ship except the pilot and Binti. She has to figure out how to survive.

I found the story interesting if a little slow at the beginning and too quick at the end. The themes of cultures clashing and people adapting to new situations are classic science fiction fodder. A new person is often introduced so that other characters can explain the context and what's going on. Binti has to find out on her own since she has no other humans to help her (she doesn't get help from anyone else on earth and on the ship the pilot is unreachable). The Khoush, the Himba, the Meduse, and Binti herself all have some tribal/ethnic/racial/planetary assumptions which are the rough edges that need to be smoothed so that all these people can get along with each other. Taking off those edges is hard, risky work, but necessary work. The resolution of these problems happens too quickly and not quite convincingly.

Slightly recommended--the writing is imaginative but the ending uses too many cliche shortcuts to get to its resolution.

Terrapin Adventures October 2020

For another birthday celebration we went to Terrapin Adventures for some thrilling fun. We signed up the kids to go on their own. We parents were happy to watch from the solid ground.

Ready for action

The first part of the adventure was climbing walls and towers.

Hooking in

On the ropes

On the tire

Almost to the top

Good enough

Rock wall made of wood

Tire or ladder?

Definitely the ladder

Another high adventure did not involve any climbing--the big swing!

The high ropes adventure course is the main attraction at Terrapin Adventures. I had done it maybe ten years ago. It doesn't look different now--still fun and terrifying.

Walking on a wire

Another wire man

A higher wire

Almost across

Too many wires to choose from

The course ends with a big drop from the highest level. An employee on the ground belays the climbers so they don't drop to fast.

Going down

Back to the ground

The finale was the zip line through the woods. If only I trusted the kids with the camera, we could have gotten an awesome video. 

Walking to the zip line platform

Our youngest was happy just to hang out on the ground.

Good, safe fun