Michael Hopcroft

But it would be truly terrifying if it did. "The Pig Brain that Ate Up Birmingham Alabama" sounds like a horror movie.

Manga creator Kazuhiko Katō, known by his pen name Monkey Punch, has died at the age of 81. You may not know the name, or even the pseudonym, but I'm pretty sure you know about his most significant creation -- globetrotting master thief Lupin III in the series of the same name.
 
For almost half a century Lupin has confounded adversaries (like Zenigata, the Interpol agent obsessed with his capture), tried to bed nubile women (and usually failed), made enormous scores only to see them slip away, and slip in and out of the clutches of the lovely, lethal Fujiko (who may or may not have returned his affections depending on her mood and the needs of whatever scheme she was hatching). Lupin has starred in several television series and several movies. This number included The Castle of Cagliostro, the spectacular adventure that was the first feature directed by Hayao Miyazaki (and which still holds up amazingly well today after nearly forty years). The heady blend of high adventure and lowbrow comedy has been enjoyed by generations, both in Japan and around the world.

Verdi's opera Otello is, obviously, an adaption of Shakespeare's play Othello. This play brought into the world perhaps the blackest-hearted villain in all of theater -- Iago, master deceiver and twister of truths and relationships, a man who will worm himself into your confidence, pretend to be your best and only friend, and lead you on a primrose path to the destruction of everything you care about or hold dear -- all over an imagined slight. In the opera, Iago gets a chance to explain to the audience just what his view of the world is like, in this aria "Credo in un Dio crudel!"
 
In English -- "I believe in a cruel God!"
 
 
A great translation of the lyrics can be found here .
 
Verdi had a great love of Shakespeare. He also wrote operatic adaptations of Hamlet. Macbeth, and The Merry Wives of Windsor (renamed simply as Falstaff).

Heaven help us all if this turns out to be arson.
 
I just watched the end of the Special Report from ABC, which ended with shots of the interior of the cathedral while it was still standing. It was so beautiful and so serene, and now it is gone.
 
Heartbreaking. Simply heartbreaking. There is no other way to describe it.

President Macron has come as close as a secular politician can to swearing a blood oath on the flag of his ancestors that Notre Dame will rise again. That the best architectural minds in the world, the best construction technicians and workers, and the will of a nation -- if not a continent -- will come together to restore the cathedral to its beauty, glory, and raw emotional power.
 
It will be an epic labor. I doubt it will be completed in my lifetime. But it is a far better use of the world's time than making more bombs, more battles, and more orphans.
 
God bless Paris. God bless Notre Dame.

President Macron has come as close as a secular politician can to swearing a blood oath on the flag of his ancestors that Notre Dame will rise again. That the best architectural minds in the world, the best construction technicians and workers, and the will of a nation -- if not a continent -- will come together to restore the cathedral to its beauty, glory, and raw emotional power.
 
It will be an epic labor. I doubt it will be completed in my lifetime. But it is a far better use of the world's time than making more bombs, more battles, and more orphans.
 
God bless Paris. God bless Notre Dame.

...blueberries are -- yellow? Dang! I'm going to need to get the color on this set realigned! Next, I'll be seeing pink elephants!
 
No, wait. That's from the Scotch.

President Macron has come as close as a secular politician can to swearing a blood oath on the flag of his ancestors that Notre Dame will rise again. That the best architectural minds in the world, the best construction technicians and workers, and the will of a nation -- if not a continent -- will come together to restore the cathedral to its beauty, glory, and raw emotional power.
 
It will be an epic labor. I doubt it will be completed in my lifetime. But it is a far better use of the world's time than making more bombs, more battles, and more orphans.
 
God bless Paris. God bless Notre Dame.

'Who are you?"
"The new Number Two."
"Who is Number One?"
"You are Number Six!"
"I AM NOT A NUMBER! I AM A FREE MAN!"
"HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

The 1945 film And Then There Were None was the object yesterday. It has perhaps the classic setup for a mystery: ten strangers are lured to a lonely house of an otherwise uninhabited island, where a record is played accusing everyone of either committing direct murder or causing the deaths of others through neglect or ignorance. It seems like a sick practical joke -- until the "guests" start dying. what follows is an exercise in mounting paranoia; as their numbers dwindle, the survivors conclude it has to be one of them, and are trying to balance between trying to find the killer and trying not to be the next victim. As a racist nursery rhyme used in the film illustrates, the responsible party may well have intended to leave nobody alive. (the title of the original printing of Agatha Christie's novel was Ten Little N******, changed to Ten Little Indians in later printings until finally settling on the current title).
 
Agatha Christies may have been capable of creating "puzzles", but what makes stand out among her many contemporaries is her arch observation and gift for satire. She understood that murder was not merely an intellectual exercise; that real passions and emotions were in play. She was particularly ruthless when it came to the idyllic country life that people who lived in cities so envied in the era between the wars and afterward -- Miss Jane Marple was able to observe the full depths of human depravity in her little village of St. Mary Mead.

"Well, my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle."

"Well, my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle."

Q: What if they gave a Jeopardy! match and nobody came?
 
A: Your choice in headgear has removed all remaining doubt as to whether I would enjoy your company -- in the negative.

It looks like the Kree have weapons that can crack the planet open like an egg, so why don't they? Earth is certainly annoying enough. And if there are all these powerful entities seeking to destroy the Earth, eventually one of them is bound to succeed.
 
It's like the Coyote problem. The Roadrunner can beat the Coyote time and again, but the Coyote need only win once.

I fully understand and appreciate why someone wouldn't want to be associated with someone like the shooter. However, I wonder if it's really a good idea to give in to the impulse to pretend that such people are other than human, or somehow qualitatively different from us. If we forget that "people like us" have the capacity to commit atrocities, we run the risk of failing to carefully consider the ethics of our own actions, ceasing to police ourselves because we know we're not "one of those people."
 
I strongly suspect that such thinking is a part of the mix that produces these atrocities.

My thoughts:
 
It was good, but not spectacularly good. That's OK because Black Panther set an impossibly high standard and I knew going in that this movie wasn't going to meet it.
 
That said, it played to tropes. I am upset that it has been getting hate from "fans" simply because of the casting. Which is not at all fair, and to put it bluntly sick. Random commenters on Rotten Tomatoes are not gooing to decide whether I'm seeing a movie. I leave getting opinions on film; to the people who see 100 movies a year as part of their jobs. And Brie Larson was fine. And when it did play to tropes it played to them well.
 
Of course, the Kree turned out to be that bad guys. That was something I expected but was still surprised when it happened. and the Skrull (the ones who were sent to Earth at least) were not entirely blameless for their actions. They had to do what they did, I'll give them that, but inspiring paranoia isn't a great thing to do. It reminded me of a somewhat about average Doctor Who episode, and the Skrill makeup was terrible. 
 
Still, I enjoyed it. It wasn't a night at the movies (or a Cinemark club ticket) wasted. Again, Black Panther set an impossibly high standard for superhero films. I remembered that, and never expected Captain Marvel to meet that standard.

Q: And how did that Styx album really end?
 
A: With parts made in Japan, I am the Modern Man!

"Gondor has no King. Gondor needs no King."
 
"I wish the ring had never come to me, I wish none of this had happened.:
 
 
‘”Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.’”

My thoughts:
 
It was good, but not spectacularly good. That's OK because Black Panther set an impossibly high standard and I knew going in that this movie wasn't going to meet it.
 
That said, it played to tropes. I am upset that it has been getting hate from "fans" simply because of the casting. Which is not at all fair, and to put it bluntly sick. Random commenters on Rotten Tomatoes are not gooing to decide whether I'm seeing a movie. I leave getting opinions on film; to the people who see 100 movies a year as part of their jobs. And Brie Larson was fine. And when it did play to tropes it played to them well.
 
Of course, the Kree turned out to be that bad guys. That was something I expected but was still surprised when it happened. and the Skrull (the ones who were sent to Earth at least) were not entirely blameless for their actions. They had to do what they did, I'll give them that, but inspiring paranoia isn't a great thing to do. It reminded me of a somewhat about average Doctor Who episode, and the Skrill makeup was terrible. 
 
Still, I enjoyed it. It wasn't a night at the movies (or a Cinemark club ticket) wasted. Again, Black Panther set an impossibly high standard for superhero films. I remembered that, and never expected Captain Marvel to meet that standard.

My thoughts:
 
It was good, but not spectacularly good. That's OK because Black Panther set an impossibly high standard and I knew going in that this movie wasn't going to meet it.
 
That said, it played to tropes. I am upset that it has been getting hate from "fans" simply because of the casting. Which is not at all fair, and to put it bluntly sick. Random commenters on Rotten Tomatoes are not gooing to decide whether I'm seeing a movie. I leave getting opinions on film; to the people who see 100 movies a year as part of their jobs. And Brie Larson was fine. And when it did play to tropes it played to them well.
 
Of course, the Kree turned out to be that bad guys. That was something I expected but was still surprised when it happened. and the Skrull (the ones who were sent to Earth at least) were not entirely blameless for their actions. They had to do what they did, I'll give them that, but inspiring paranoia isn't a great thing to do. It reminded me of a somewhat about average Doctor Who episode, and the Skrill makeup was terrible. 
 
Still, I enjoyed it. It wasn't a night at the movies (or a Cinemark club ticket) wasted. Again, Black Panther set an impossibly high standard for superhero films. I remembered that, and never expected Captain Marvel to meet that standard.

Because their security detail (including Birmingham police officers), in spite of its numbers and the intensive training they received, were unable to prevent this person from getting onto the pitch in the first place. Nobody but the payers, coaches, and game officials have any business there. That is why the team will be (and should be) punished -- the security measures were in place to prevent this very situation and failed utterly.

"Gondor has no King. Gondor needs no King."
 
"I wish the ring had never come to me, I wish none of this had happened.:
 
 
‘”Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.’”

"Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposes! They've got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses! And what's with all the carrots? What do they need such good eyesight for anyway? Bunnies! Bunnies! It must be Bunnies!... or maybe midgets..."