Red Dawn 1984

 It's powerful.  Released while the Cold War was still on, it has Russians and Cubans invading the United States.  It was powerful enough to cause our Protestant minister preach an entire Sunday sermon against it. He felt it was too violent and too much of a war mongering flick.  Youngest son liked it.  Back in 1984 I watched it, not bad.  I rewatched it this afternoon and it brought tears to my eyes.   Powerful that flick is.  The last scene where scummy Russian colonel with a machine pistol takes  on Jedd with a ivory handled Colt six gun is cool.  Especially the last part where Jedd is carrying wounded brother Matty to safety and the Cuban officer gets the drop on them but waves them on.  I could understand every line of dialog and the camera man turned on the lights for every scene, no black on black like they do on Game of Thrones.  They don't make movies like that any more.  

Making corporations pay their fair share.

 Translation:  Tax companies more.  Biden was calling for this just tonight. We can do it, but it is gonna cost us.  The companies will have to raise their prices to pay the extra tax.  That hits all their customers.  So calling for tax hikes on companies just means that some of us, maybe all of us, have to pay the extra tax.  

Tonight I heard Biden claim that 55 companies were skating on their taxes, paying zip.  He didn't bother the name even one of these 55 companies, which makes me think those 55 companies are indeed paying taxes, despite what Biden says.  Be that as it may, if we had a company name we could check their tax returns.  If the company is really paying zip, it must be using a tax loophole.  So we close that tax loophole.  Simple enough to do, and the only good tax loophole is a dead tax loophole.  It should not take all that long to go over 55 company tax returns.  It will take longer to get the Congresscritters to vote to close the loopholes, but it could be done.  Apply enough heat and even Congresscritters will feel it.

Cooking Fish

 I bought a nice piece of North Atlantic Salmon, maybe 1 1/4 inch thick, a touch over half a pound.  I marinated it in lemon juice, perhaps 5 minutes a side.  Then a bit of olive oil on each side.  Heat the oven to 350, put the fish in a baking dish, and give it 8 minutes in the oven.  Then turn on the broiler and give it another 2 minutes a side.  Tasty.  

Problems at the Light Bulb Factory

 Out of a box of four new bulbs, three of them have failed after just a few days, say 7 to 14 days.  The third bulb died just this evening.  I am waiting for daylight so I can see what I am doing before I change it.  The four pack is marked "GE soft white" "100 w  2X Longer Life" "Uses 28% Less Energy" "uses only 72 w  1.8 year life" ""GE's Best soft white incandescent line"  and finally "Made in Hungary".

   Gotta find another light bulb supplier. 

Robocallers

 PITA.  They call me four or five times a day.  I stop what I am doing and answer the phone.  Sometimes no one is there.  Sometimes they pretend to be calling from Microsoft and try to talk me into loading a virus onto my computer.  Sometimes they claim outrageous charges are laid against my Amazon Plus card.  And lots of others scams. 

   We ought to clamp down on this PITA.

   We could start by requiring the phone companies to make caller ID spoof proof.  The telephone exchange has numbers, yours and the robocaller's.  It needs them to connect the call.  They can have the system present the correct caller’s number to caller ID, making it easier to refuse calls from strangers.

   We could press on by finding a clever lawyer to define the crime of robocalling in a way that does not collide with free speech.  And then writing a law declaring robocalling a crime and defining penalties for robocalling.  Personally I would be in favor of some cruel and unusual punishments, boiling in oil for instance.  Or burning at the stake. 

   If someone would make a clever electronic box that connected to your phone and when activated would constantly dial the robocaller's number and deliver a hard core diatribe when the number answered, I would buy one. 

 

 

How to make a decent movie. Some thing Hollywood has forgotten.

A movie needs a protagonist (protagonist, $2 word meaning hero or heroine).  Female or male protagonists work just fine.  The protagonist must be likeable; we viewers cannot get excited about a scumbag protagonist.  The protagonist needs to accomplish something and the movie needs to show him working on it, what ever it is.  We viewers need to know just what it is that the protagonist is trying to do.  Best literary example I can think of is Tolkien.  Right in chapter 2 Gandalf tells Frodo (and us) about the ring, its deadly power, the dark lord searching for it, and the need to destroy it.  From then on for the rest of the three book trilogy we know what is going on.  The protagonist has to do things; we cannot care much about a protagonist who merely serves as a punching bag thru out the movie. 

   Then the movie needs a background, Narnia, Middlearth, the Wild West, gangland Chicago, the Washington DC swamp, Sherwood Forest, the Western Front, Imperial Rome, and the Crusades, somewhere. The background needs to be convincing, with few noticeable anachronisms.  I an a history major and long time history buff and I am OK with some bending of the history to make a better movie.

    The movie should build to a climax, where the protagonist goes up against his opposing forces and/or the villain and either wins or looses.  Speaking as a viewer, I like protagonists that win, defeating their enemy. I can tolerate a protagonist who looses if I see him/her put forth truly heroic effort in the final battle. 

   Then the movie needs good actors who speak up clearly, and a good sound man, one who makes the entire dialog audible.  I am getting old, but I have no trouble hearing the TV newsies, and the entire dialog in my old favorites.  Somewhere around Charlie Wilson’s War the sound man lost it and much of the amusing dialog was inaudible.  That sound man has been messing up movies ever since.  One thing a sound man needs to know.   He must mute the score and the sound track when the actors are speaking.

   And a movie needs a good camera man.  One who puts the camera on a tripod and doesn’t wave it around in the air.  And one who turns the lights on before filming.  Black on black scenes are simply annoying to the audience.   

I posted too soon. TV still talking George Floyd trial.

 We have the Feds declaring an investigation of the Minneapolis police department.  That's a new one on me.  I thought city police were the city's responsibility, but never mind.  We have BLM people threatening more riots. We have Alan Dershowitz calling for the George Floyd trial to be appealed/overturned/Supremecourted/something.  And we have a another terrible incident, teen aged black girl with a knife shot dead by police.