Vale Douglas Trumbull, film visual effects artist
14 February 2022
Douglas Trumbull, a visual effects artist whose film credits include Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: the Motion Picture, The Tree of Life, and the mind-boggling “star-gate” sequence in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, died last week at the age of 79.
By the way, the above trailer was made in 2018 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
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2001: A Space Odyssey, film, science fiction, trailer
The Very Last List of Vivian Walker, Megan Albany
12 February 2022
I couldn’t imagine how I’d feel if I were told I only had a certain amount of time left to live. It’s not the sort of situation most of us are used to dealing with. Our time, energy, and thought-output goes into dealing with all those other everyday predicaments. Paying the mortgage, getting the kids into the best school. Meeting the latest deadline. No pun intended.
But this is what happens to Vivian, the titular character of The Very Last List of Vivian Walker (published by Hachette Australia, 9 February 2022), the debut novel of Kalkadoon woman Megan Albany, an Australian author based in the Northern Rivers of NSW.
With her mortality hanging by a thread, Vivian does what any self-possessed control freak whose life is regimented by lists would; she decides to face her demise by organising herself. She prepares to-do lists not only for herself, but husband Clint, and son Ethan. These lists, she hopes, will soften the blow of her terminal diagnosis, and prepare the family for a future without her.
Vivian’s final days are punctuated with a certain dark humour, and one hopes not too many of us will ever find ourselves taking a leaf from the book of Vivian Walker.
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fiction, Megan Albany, TBR list, writing
Wordle words for him and her
12 February 2022
Gender has an influence on vocabulary comprehension, and some words are more familiar to one gender than others it seems. For instance, peplum, tulle, bandeau, and taffeta are words likely to be better known to women, while milliamp, boson, parsec, and shemale (who would have thought), are generally more familiar to men.
There’s a few words on the chart put together by Yuri Vishnevsky I’ve not seen until now, but I’ve made a note of the five-letter words in case they pop-up on Wordle one day.
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Ice Crash: Antarctica, Lynda Engler
11 February 2022
American science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson is among writers who are hopeful fiction featuring climate change, and the consequences of global warming, will play a part in changing the perceptions of people who still don’t take the worldwide environmental crisis seriously.
For instance his latest novel, The Ministry for the Future, paints a bleak picture of a planet in deep trouble, but also presents a pathway through the turmoil, towards a positive future. Ice Crash: Antarctica (published by Amazon, February 15, 2022), by North Carolina based American author Lynda Engler, is another work of fiction taking on the topic of climate change, coupled with a series of devastating natural disasters.
Here, an earthquake in Antarctica pushes the Thwaites glacier, also known as the doomsday glacier into the ocean, bringing about a sudden and catastrophic rise in sea levels. Kathryn, a seismologist working in Antarctica, who has been alarmed by the unusual seismic activity, becomes trapped at McMurdo Station, by a succession of earthquakes.
Her husband and son meanwhile, who are in Boston, and her daughter who is in Florida, need to evacuate as sharply rising sea waters, and a series of tsunamis, bring devastation to the continental United States, and other nations around the globe.
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fiction, Lynda Engler, TBR list, writing
Not the centre of the Earth that Jules Verne saw
10 February 2022
The long held notion that the centre, or core, of our planet consists of solid iron, may have been up-ended by a recent study suggesting Earth’s inner core is made up of a solid iron sublattice and liquid-like light elements:
A joint research team led by Prof. HE Yu from the Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGCAS) has found that the inner core of the Earth is not a normal solid but is composed of a solid iron sublattice and liquid-like light elements, which is also known as a superionic state. The liquid-like light elements are highly diffusive in iron sublattices under inner core conditions.
Well that differs somewhat from nineteenth century French author Jules Verne’s depiction, in his 1864 novel Journey to the Center of the Earth.
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The Truth about Faking It, Cassie Hamer
10 February 2022
The first rule of lying is not be caught out. But to lie frequently, or compulsively, means you either need to have a good memory, or hope that no one ever uncovers the truth. And webs of deceit are at the heart of The Truth about Faking It (published by HarperCollins Publishers, May 2022), the third novel by Sydney based Australian author Cassie Hamer.
Lies run through Ellen’s family. Her daughter Natasha, a composed television news reader, and grand-daughter Georgie, the producer of a reality TV show, are accomplished at concealing the truth, and their feelings. Ellen isn’t half bad either. Despite being married to David, she has been seeing the well-off Kenneth, on the side. But when the accident prone David dies in a boating accident in Thailand, having travelled there with his elusive and seldom heard of brother, Ellen, Natasha, and Georgie, smell a rat.
Something is not quite right about the whole affair, and the three women decide to delve further into the circumstances surrounding David’s demise. But in doing so, in exposing the truth of what happened to David, they risk lifting the lid on their own sordid lies and deceptions. Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive…
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Cassie Hamer, fiction, TBR list, writing
Drive My Car, a film by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
9 February 2022
Drive My Car (Doraibu mai kâ), trailer, is the latest feature from Japanese filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, and tells the story of a recently widowed stage director coming to terms with his wife’s sudden death, and revelations about her life that surface after her passing. Drive My Car has been nominated in this year’s Oscars for Best Director, and in a first for a Japanese film, Best Picture.
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film, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, trailer
A day in the life of a librarian
9 February 2022
A day in the life of a librarian, or at least how library users might see a librarian’s day, by Chicago based American author John Howard Matthews. Quite possibly not one hundred percent accurate…
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Nominations for the ninety-fourth Oscars/Academy Awards
9 February 2022
The nominations for the ninety-fourth Oscars were unveiled overnight, and almost seem more notable for their exclusions rather than their inclusions.
For instance Lady Gaga and Jared Leto were not recognised for their roles in House of Gucci, ditto Cate Blanchett and Bradley Cooper for Nightmare Alley, and then arguably the big one, Denis Villeneuve missing out on a Best Director nomination for Dune, though the film is in the running for Best Picture.
On the other hand Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog is in line for a dozen Oscar gongs, including Best Director and Best Picture, while Australian actors Nicole Kidman and Kodi Smit-McPhee, have also been nominated. The Oscars awards ceremony takes place on Sunday 27 March 2022.
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Toto’s Africa covered by Sydney DJ Dave Winnel
8 February 2022
Africa, recorded by American rock band Toto in 1982, which against the odds surely, became an anthem for millennials three or four years ago, has been covered by Sydney based Australian DJ and producer Dave Winnel, for Triple J’s Like A Version. Hurry boy, she’s waiting there for you…
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