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The Mandalorian

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Film

Published: 01 December 2019

Hits: 1039

The daughter was curious as to watch this so I watched it first so we could discuss it.

It's received a fair bit of press, and I haven't yet read a negative review. Which is strange...so - here it comes.

A short list of the movies it's ripping off:

• Lone Wolf and Cub
• The Seven Samurai
• John Wick II
• Cat meowed at Yoda - borrowed from Miyazaki's "My Neighbor Totoro"
• Music hints at Sergio Leone's "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"
• The Mandalorian - sounds more than a bit like Clint Eastwood and speaks with an inflection that I'm pretty sure he borrowed as well.
• These are just the ones that I noticed. I'm sure if you were a little more culturally fluent you'd recognize more. Suffice it to say there isn't an original bit of material in it.

Questions: Why does every outpost and every intergalactic port look like a ghetto in a third world country? And, really? Really? Are they STILL using plastic?

Now, the ripping off - the film-literate Star Wars fan might suggest that these are just "homages", tributes to the Disney Imagineers favorite films. Except the quality of this is so abysmally low that any one who sat through any of the above movies referenced isn't going to be able to sit through this without a lot of squirming very uncomfortably in their seat. So, not "homages" - this audience isn't going to understand - this is just a rip-off.

Now the dialogue - written for 5-year-olds, the acting - well like the actors realized at the last minute they'd just signed on to terminate their theatrical careers - abysmal - like out of a kids muppet movie - worse even - episode 4 - "Mandalorian interacts with barmaid"...painful, literally burn your eyes out painful. And - the solution to the many plot stalls is to throw in another crazy looking alien or robot. How about a new ice monster? Now you're thinking...

The Imagineers in a Brainstorming Session:

• "Lets add a silly robot..."
• "yeah, great idea, how about a killer silly robot?"
• "Hilarious! And it's got to want to blow itself up every time things go wrong..."
• "Now you're thinking..."

Inane.

Having sat through almost 4 hours of this - so you won't have to - I can tell you - not everyone needs a back story. Not Boba Fett, not Yoda, "The Mystery Character" is no longer a mystery character if you devote a whole fucking series explaining who he is. I'll tell you what needs explaining, What really needs explaining in this is how on earth Werner Herzog signed on to this...he better be fundraising for something great because he's got some atoning to do...

This is the world of corporate creativity, Disney's own milquetoast brand of "creative" storytelling, less plot, less dialogue, more visual effects. The Dystopian Disney...their corporate "imagineers" plundering all the best moments of popular culture and reducing them, dumbing them down to the absolutely lowest common denominator. 

End Episode 4: " "I'' miss you 'baby Yoda' sooo much...". Don't you worry you little brat, Disney's going to make sure you can buy a lifesized replica just in time for Xmas...

 

Missing 1950 Douglas C-54D

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Ideas & Questions

Published: 30 November 2019

Hits: 1263

This is the fascinating tale of a vanished Douglas C-54D that disappeared en-route from Anchorage Alaska to Great Falls, Montana, on January 26th 1950. 

70 years later and there's been no trace of the passengers or crew discovered.

Articles here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_Douglas_C-54D_disappearance and here http://www.ruudleeuw.com/search137.htm and here: https://www.warhistoryonline.com/cold-war/disappearance-of-a-usaf-c-54.html

Operation Mike still continues on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OperationMike/

The plane is believed to have crashed somewhere along the BC/Yukon border, although there are those that think it may have crashed further south (there are rumors that it may have crashed in the Cranbrook Forest district, or going over Crowsnest pass, although it seems unlikely that with the increase in population & forestry work there it would still be undiscovered.)

What is especially curious is the fact that intermittent SOS/distress calls were picked up for 2 weeks following the plane's disappearance, implying that it may have not met with a fiery end (as reported by one warden who reported hearing a "boom"), it may have landed relatively intact and the 44 occupants perished awaiting help. Cold weather, clouds and snow hampered search efforts and quite possibly the plane was entirely covered over and so went unspotted. Another is that it landed on a lake - and come spring sunk to the bottom with it's passengers. There are a few tales like this - try: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/baker-lake-bristol-freighter-underwater-discovery-1.4814719.

The original news clippings from the Victoria Times Colonist:

 

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Tutankhamun and the Valley of the Kings - Otto Neubert

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Books

Published: 30 November 2019

Hits: 1195

I'm enjoying this. Otto Neubert was an Archaeologist/Egyptologist who was with Howard Carter when he opened the Tomb of Tutankhamun.

He's good with his history - and, with almost 4,000 years of "civilized" history, (how many Pharaohs?) there's a lot to explore. And it rivals - surpasses - anything in the wildest Indiana Jones movie. Subterranean crypts filled with the bodies of hundreds of slaves murdered to protect the hiding place of the tombs, the vast necropolises for cats, crocodiles, herons, you name it, the culture of almost perpetual grave-robbing, the empire was cannibalizing it's dead shortly after they were hidden in the ground, and have been doing so for thousands of years...

I could go on. It's not a great book, but it captures something of the flavor of what Egypt once was, and the thrill of discovery that continues to this day...