Ruining Films

No!  I Don't Mean Ripping The Film Out Of The Camera -
Which probably stopped being a trope at least ten years ago, with the advent of cheap digital cameras, meaning that there was no need to process tons of celluloid to end up with a film; no, your mobile phone could do all that for you.
     Here an aside.  Yes, already!  You ought to know by now that Your Humble Scribe is verrrry suspicious of any new technology that happens along, and that he's never really gotten over Windows going from 3.1 to Windows 1.  

Close enough

     I do notice that my misapprehension is not widely shared by the bumbletucks who spend every waking minute goggling at their mobile phone, potential Darwin Awards winners every one of them.  They are going to remove themselves from the gene pool by walking under the wheels of that bus, or falling down that flight of concrete steps, or failing to notice that the streets are a-swarm with zombies and killer robots -
     Anyway, back on track.  Conrad was idly perusing the feeds from The Flop House's Facebook page, and - O dear.  There's a thread there that begins "Ruin a film by removing one letter".
     Your Humble Scribe cannot resist participating in these things and, as inevitably as a radio-isotope thermoelectric generator, in I plunged.

     "Lady And The Tram": the romance of modern inner-city transport.
     "Lady And The Ramp": how she got over her fear of gradually increasing elevations
     "An Inconvenient Ruth":  How she always turns up just as you're getting ready for 
      bed
     "Attack The Lock": How burglars operate
     "Forbidden Plane": the epic story of the Spruce Goose
     "The Thin":  shape-shifting alien dietician
    
     At which point I steeled my resolve and bowed out, otherwise I'd still be there.  I shall probably come back to this theme as I like it, whether you do or not.

<swoons>

     Right, motley, let's put on that epic about over-ambitious mountaineers, "A Ridge Too Far".

The Next Installment In Books What I Have Read
For Lo!  We are back on the subject of of Some Dude Made A List, that list being "51 of the Best Sci-fi Novels Of All TIme", and here we have the ladies seminal entry.  Art?

Not sure about that haircut

     Conrad has, of course, read it, and found it to be a very interesting read, not the least because you can read an awful lot into it depending on your point of view.  "Prometheus", lest you be unaware, is a figure from Greek mythology, who stole fire from the gods in order to give it to Hom. Sap. and which Conrad can very well appreciate, having just had three hot buttered crumpets.
     One of the interesting things about "Frankenstein" is that the author was - SHOCK HORROR HOW CAN THIS BE - a woman.  At the time (1819), well-bred young ladies were expected to be able to make artificial flowers, play the clavinet and be able to wear a bustle, in that order.  Write a novel?  Preposterous!  Moreover, one that can be considered proto-science fiction?  Blasphemy!  Treason!  Fire!  Flood! etcetera, though I don't think there were any letters to The Times.

Mary sombrely ponders the scandalous uproar she has caused
(Tee hee!)

"Hail Mary"
Quiver thou not, for No, we are not about to dive into divinity, theology and eschatology*.  Conrad has encountered this term in South Canadian writing and was never entirely sure what it meant.  Something vaguely associated with long odds, I think I though.  Well, in an article on the South Canadian President's legal counter to impeachment - no, no, SIT BACK DOWN! that's as far as we get into Politics - the author explained where the term comes from and what it means.

South Canadian Rugby, actually.

     The story goes that one SCR player, far far away from the opposition's goal when the game had mere seconds to go, closed his eyes, said the Hail Mary prayer, and then threw the ball towards that distant goal.  Surprise!  One of his own side caught it and made a down-touch, thus winning the match.  Apologies for the intricate technical details here.
     So, a long-odds gamble, in other words.
     Take note of this post: we've covered Politics, Religion and Sport, three things that the blog usually avoids.  Just for your information.

Excellently clear exposition there, Art

     I should quietly state that today's blog was begun last night, and has so far <crosses all fingers> not suffered the <long stream of swears> Cursor Reformatting Error.  Better save RIGHT NOW whilst I still can.

Conrad: Agent Of Chaos

A noble title, and not one that all can aspire to.  NO!  I am not presenting myself as being part of the global seditionary network that seeks to undermine civilisation, bringing about circumstances favourable to the return of the Elder Gods** -

"Someone called?"

     No, I refer - obviously! - to "The Expanse".  I have recently finished watching Season Four (Season Five already being filmed!) and was idly perusing the feeds on Space Opera's Facebook page and Lo! there was a thread about TE.  So I joined in and made a snarky comment about the chief villain of the piece being played by a Brit, one Burn Gorman.  Art?

Probably not a point of view you'd enjoy

     The thing is, Burn is regularly cast as the villain, because of his thin-lipped scowly looks, although in real life he is an utter sweetie.  You might recognise him from "Game of Thrones" and "Pacific Rim" and "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises".
     There then began a series of back and forward insults on this thread, as one poster insisted that, because Burn was born in California, he's American, which was vehemently opposed by another poster who insisted that he is, indeed, British.  The fur flew.  So too did Conrad, because cowardice.  I don't know whether to go look at the thread and see if it's been ended, deleted or the moderators are just enjoying the spat with a tub of popcorn.
     It's interesting to see how just incredibly offensive people can be when they're not confronting face to face, eh?

Look!  Look!  He can smile!

Finally -
Apropos of my first aside up above, there are people out there who can divorce themselves from the 21st Century.  A lot of people, to judge by the 23,000 who applied for two caretaker posts on a remote island just off the coast of Ireland, part of a group called the Blaskets.  Art?

The metropolitan hub of Great Blasket

     The successful candidates will no doubt appreciate the windswept, unspoiled wilderness of the islands, and they definitely won't have to compete with crowds for the beaches.  On the down side, there is no hot water - you have to use water from local streams - nor is there any electricity, so say goodbye to all modern conveniences and Hello! to living conditions circa 1850.


     And with that we are done!


*  Conrad not really sure what the last one is, but it sounds impressive
**  I cannot comment on whether this organisation CHAOS exists or not.