As always, I have a number of projects going at once. Hence this blog is in the nature of a ‘head’s up’ for any and all interested parties. In the next couple days (probably this Thursday), I’ll be posting my review of the 2013 film Lee Daniel’s The Butler here. It’s a somewhat fictionalized account of […]
Read more "Various Coming Attractions"Director George Miller makes a stunning return to his classic post-apocalyptic future series with Tom Hardy very ably filling the role Mel Gibson originated years ago. Miller also co-wrote this all-out, non-stop spectacle with Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouvis. This time, a game and indomitable Charlize Theron provides the heroic loner with a fierce if sometimes reluctant […]
Read more "FILM REVIEW: Mad Max, Fury Road (2015)"Films where a number of shorter works (usually with a thematic connection) are bound together in an anthology format are pretty rare. As the title suggests, here the basic thread involves futuristic science fiction with a distinctly horrific sensibility. Features of this sort are almost guaranteed to be uneven in quality and impact. That’s certainly […]
Read more "FILM REVIEW: Galaxy of Horrors (2017)"Dying of the Light (Theatrical Action Film, 2014, 1 hours 34 minutes). This middling Nicholas Cage vehicle is a spy versus terrorist action flick. The twist, to the extent there is one, is that the principle antagonists are both terminally ill. Cage does a very respectable job playing “Evan Lake,” a veteran CIA agent who never […]
Read more "FILM REVIEW: Dying of the Light (2014)"I celebrated this, my 60th birthday October 4th at my favorite hang-out: Windber’s Grand Midway Hotel. Owner Blair Murphy is still running himself ragged in preparation for the Halloween Season (and particularly this year’s Dracula-Con shindig on October 13), so I was running the coffeehouse for much of the evening. Syn previewed her costume for […]
Read more "Windber Coffeehouse Nights, 4 October 2018"Yesterday was still humid, although air temps eased back to only slightly above ‘normal.’ I attended the latest meeting of Friends of the Windber Library at 5 PM, the most interesting part of which was all the rest of us trying to convince our dedicated Library Director that, visibly ill as she was, she really […]
Read more "Windber Coffeehouse Nights, August 30, 2018"Yes, it was another Thursday night at my weekly hangout: A haunted onetime hotel turned spooky (but very fun) coffeehouse. But first, there was time for another of my favorite activities: DINNER! What used to be Windber’s Coal Heritage Museum (and way before my time, the town’s Post Office) is less than a block from […]
Read more "Windber Coffeehouse Nights: 19 July 2018"A quiet night so far at the coffeehouse of Windber’s fabled Grand Midway Hotel. Blair had to work till 6 PM (which is when it was to open–so I was drafted to come in early and do the prep work). Our lead movie tonight was the great Tim Burton epic Ed Wood–Johnny Depp, the wondrous Martin […]
Read more "COFFEEHOUSE NIGHTS: October 19 at the Grand Midway Hotel"Apologies for posting this late. My laptop’s battery was running very low Thursday night and I kind of got into the evening’s 3rd movie (see below, I had never seen this–the Rob Zombie remake of the slasher classic…). Friday was Veteran’s Day and the public library was closed. I did get online briefly, sitting in […]
Read more "10 Nov. at the Grand Midway, Part 2"More chess matches! Debate about heavy metal covers. Walking sticks and homemade Roman sandals (complete with straps to wrap around the wearer’s legs). Ah, all parts of the fun strangeness that is the Shangri-La Coffee Lounge at Windber’s Fabled Grand Midway Hotel. And Blair is consulting with a regular attendee on cover art/design for his […]
Read more "October 6 at the Midway, Part 2"
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