This is a bizarre short musical film telling Americans what to do in an air raid, obviously made shortly after America entered WWII. I thought it was absolutely fascinating and the sort of bit of history none of us would have known about otherwise, which is why I decided to post it.
Never liked a thing ‘spaghetti tossing’ Shawn Levy’s ever directed, but he at least got a 3-star rating/grade this time, mostly based on the actors and the cameos (but boy did they bungle it by not having Dougray Scott play one of the Wolverines).
Typical Pool, loads of violence, loads of unfunny sex jokes, loads of self-referential material. It was alright.
: Master of the House (2024, Netflix, TV-MA) – A Thai drama centering on a maid-made-wife in a rich household shortly(?) before the successful-business husband dies, and amongst some spoiled, self-obsessed young adult heirs. I bailed after 3 episodes due to seemingly gratuitous emotional and even physical cruelty (not entertainment to me, at least in this context). The story does develop further (I googled it), so it may be worth watching for some.
Marvel’s X-Men ’97 (2024, Disney+, TV-14) – Sequel/“next season” of the original (1990s Saturday morning) X-Men animated series. Quite good, given the original and its genre. Nominated for a Prime-Time Emmy this year. Renewed for a second season.
Plus:
Snowpiercer (AMC) is a favorite; this season 4 is its last. (“Hey, you got your Agent Coulson in my Snowpiercer!” ).
Orphan Black: Echoes (AMC) has developed into quite a good stand-alone drama series. Keeley Hawes plays the grown-up Kira. And its episode 5 may be award-worthy.
Evil (Paramount+) is on its final few episodes, now. Oh, I will miss this.
This is on my list to get to. I really liked the original animated series back int eh day. Good to know it works and that there is a second season coming.
Sometimes you’re just not in the mood for a talky, 3 hr. art film… you’d rather watch an hour and 15-minute noir that riffs on The Lady Vanishes and is directed by the guy who did This Island Earth. Also, it should have a role for Aunt Harriet of TVs Batman fame.
And what do you know, they are showing that very thing!
Trivia: Madge Blake (Aunt Harriet) and her husband, James Lincoln Blake, worked in Utah on construction of the detonator for the atomic bomb and performed such jobs as testing equipment destined for the Manhattan Project.
Watching him now… I still really enjoy him, but basically all of his information is not especially useful from an astronomy perspective because he mostly just talks about where constellations and planets will be in the sky at any given time and maybe why the constellation is called that.
I mean that’s vaguely interesting, but I’m amazed it was enough to sustain a show for decades. I guess just because Jack Horkheimer was so engaging.
The show’s theme music from its debut in 1976 until October 2011 was Isao Tomita’s electronic rendition of Claude Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1, from Tomita’s album Snowflakes Are Dancing. According to the former Star Gazer website, this is the most frequently asked question the producers receive.
The name was changed because people searching for them on the internet accidentally went to Hustler magazine’s website instead.
Edit: Okay, Jack is actually giving real astronomy info in this one about the distance between our galaxy and others and how constellations change depending on time and perspective.
I have never heard of Jack Horkheimer, but I have watched all of Hamster and Gretel. I get the feeling there’s a lot of references I didn’t get in that show.
He talked about his Bell’s palsy, and had a bit about modern cars (I’ve never driven a car with buttons instead of keys - still funny even though I don’t have a reference point for it) - also the trap door stuff was a hoot.
Good laughs, I’ve heard of Heffron but I don’t know that I’ve seen a lot of him.
: Master of the House (2024, Netflix, TV-MA) – A Thai drama centering on a maid-made-wife in a rich household shortly(?) before the successful-business husband dies, and amongst some spoiled, self-obsessed young adult heirs. I bailed after 3 episodes due to seemingly gratuitous emotional and even physical cruelty (not entertainment to me, at least in this context). The story does develop further (I googled it), so it may be worth watching for some.
Marvel’s X-Men ’97 (2024, Disney+, TV-14) – Sequel/“next season” of the original (1990s Saturday morning) X-Men animated series. Quite good, given the original and its genre. Nominated for a Prime-Time Emmy this year. Renewed for a second season.
).
