Archive for the ‘canada’ Category
Author: Gerald
In the footsteps of Ibn Battuta
Karma, I believe, doesn’t appear in Islam, so maybe it was just fate that I’d be stopped in my tracks by the poster outside one of Washington DC’s Smithsonian museums.
It was Ibn Battuta who immediately caught my eye. I had just completed hours of meetings inside that same museum, discussing future cultural and educational programs to be conducted in Ibn Battuta’s birthplace – Tangier, Morocco – and here he was! U-turn back inside, where I got myself not only an IMAX ticket, but also a couple of related books to lug back in my suitcase.
Author: James
Radio Armageddon
Way back in 1968, George A. Romero’s enormously influential horror Night of the Living Dead was first unleashed on unsuspecting audiences. Its deceptively simple set-up – a group of survivors barricade themselves away from apocalyptic events, the situation deteriorates as what’s outside threatens to get in – has been used so often since (to very good, very bad and indifferent effect) that it’s now largely a genre cliché.
Author: James
Dark vision
Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago and director Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener (2005)) offer a disturbing, compelling take on a theme previously explored by British science fiction writer John Wyndham in The Day of the Triffids – just how bad would things really get if humanity, with but a few exceptions, was struck blind?
Author: James
Slay ride
Bob Clark (who’s sadly no longer with us, following his death in a car accident in 2007) was a fan of Christmas – his affectionate and hilarious homily to his own childhood Yuletide, A Christmas Story (1983), was preceded by Black Christmas (1974), which in turn, preceded the stalk ‘n’ slash craze of the late 1970s and 80s, the origins of which are invariably attributed to John Carpenter’s superb Halloween (1978) or Sean S. Cunningham’s Friday the 13th (1980), which is really not very good at all, but is fondly remembered by horror hounds such as myself as THE must-see movie of the early 80s’ burgeoning UK home-video market.
- Colin: Mike: the Matrix was utter toss. Don’t go there. Anyhow, I’m right with you on Aliens –...
- Colin: James: Why not do ten more and see if you can avoid putting the god-awful travesty that is Independence Day in...
- CD: The Day the Earth Stood Still (it’s about an alien who is Jesus…but better than ET) Soylent Green...
- James: Hello Chris, and welcome to Picturenose!
Many thanks for your comment – I thought, in fact, that... - James: Colin, good points, both on Westworld (which should really have been included, I know, I know) and otters.