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High Noon
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 144
The last on my "Western" themed movie, "High Noon" with Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Lloyd Bridges and a very young (and underutilized Villain) Lee Van Cleef, whom you'd recognize as the Villain from "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" Trilogy.
The hook for this one is that it's filmed in "Real Time", or rather, the action of the film is supposed to be the hour and half leading up to the showdown. A Marshal gets married (Middle aged Gary Cooper, Young Grace Kelly), and when about to leave for his honeymoon is forced to stay back and deal with some outlaws arriving on the Noon train.
OK, the hook of "real time" is of course a little overstated, while the clocks in the movie keep pace with the time, action is condensed to fit the narrative.
Better than "The Searchers", but I'm rather done with the Western Genre...
The Sandman
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 139
This was a small part of E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Sandman" - I recognized it instantly.
I actually thought it was an Austrian Folktale - Krampus, after all, but no, this is all Hoffmann...
Tales of Hoffmann - E.T.A. Hoffmann
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 199
A selection of grotesque and supernaturally inspired stories by E.T.A. Hoffman, perfect for Christmas.
Lots of notes made and googling to be done afterwards, his stories, both comical, thrilling (after the fashion of Shelley), Ghost Stories filled with sleepwalkers, psychics, odd characters that seem to exist between worlds, the Wandering Jew, for example, capturing in turns the implacable remembrance of love, those moments one knows will never be repeated, of true-love generally thwarted, of fashions and news of his day, for example he spins the tale of a miner who was found perfectly preserved in Copper Sulfate, only to be identified by his widow of 50 years, a true tale (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fet-Mats), then embellishes upon it to create a story of a sailor drawn to the Mine at Falun by a supernatural agent, not that the events at Falun were by the fashion of the day not fantastic enough, expositions that rely upon unknown circumstance and incredible coincidence, both fantastic and yet relatable, The character, for example of Chancellery Private Secretary Tusmann, whose taste in books somewhat reflects mine own, for example: 1720 "Cicero Presented as a Great Windbag and Pettifogger in Ten Orations" and from whose varied list of recommendations of books long out of fashion I'm led on to:
Wiegleb's - Natural Magic (a practical book on conjuring, or Magic as practiced by Penn & Teller, written in the late 1700's)
Nudow's "Theory of Sleep",
Frankfurt Dream book
Artemidorus - on dreams & Excerpts Here
Anyways, a light but suitable holiday read. Now off to do some work...
Civil War
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 176
And saw this trailer - "Civil War" - link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDyQxtg0V2w.
And I can't help but think we're all being groomed - Another election, less than a year away, and Trump is leading the Polls and the Democrats can't see their way to find a more charismatic leader and Biden doesn't seem to recognize or acknowledge that he's imperiling democracy by not stepping down and providing a more suitable, younger and charismatic replacement.
Anyways, that's the tack we're on and - while I find nothing particularly offensive in Biden, I find his hopes for another term devastating - as will the Democrats.
As will the Entire US of A, but a good lot of them will have voted for it, so there's no tears to be shed for them.
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