Author: DOuG pRATt

Invitation to Invasion

Mars invaded Earth twice in 1953. In War of the Worlds the Martians blasted us into submission. In Invaders from Mars their plan was to subvert us from within. These are two of my very favorite movies.

I have Invaders From Mars on a LaserDisc from Image, restored to the best possible quality at the time. They later released a 50th Anniversary DVD edition of the title.

A new restoration has been completed and Invaders from Mars is now available in 2K HD and 4K UHD. I have invited those wily Martians to invade my house by ordering a Blu-ray copy.

https://www.ignite-films.com/

App Hazard

Another First World Retired Guy complaint. Everybody who has more than one Internet device knows that online services have different options, depending on the application playing them. For example, SiriusXM on a Web browser isn’t that same as on Roku, and the Roku app has a “view all segments” option I haven’t noticed before when playing a podcast.

It’s called a segment but also called a chapter, which shows a lack of consistency. Worse, when using the segment feature it’s easy to lock up the app. This is my big complaint about new features. They are often added at the expense of stability and, worse, security. “Let the users be the beta testers” has become standard in the industry.

Oh, well. Back to the Web browser. It’s proven itself to be solid and reliable…

… and it works with Chromecast.

From Coming of Age to Midlife Crisis

Tom Courtney as an angry working class lad in rural England. Burt Lancaster as a depressed upper class New York suburbanite. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and The Swimmer are 1960’s films that were adapted from short stories.

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

The Story

https://ia801907.us.archive.org/29/items/AlanSillitoeTheLonelinessOfTheLongDistanceRunner/Alan-Sillitoe-The-Loneliness-of-the-Long-Distance-Runner.pdf

The Movie

The Swimmer

The Story

https://loa-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/Cheever_Swimmer.pdf

The Movie

High Liver

David Crosby got high, and he got a liver. Crosby living as long as he did is even more surprising than it was when fellow diabetic drug user Jerry Garcia died at age 53.

Crosby had a reputation as being the #1 a-hole of Folk-Rock. His musical contributions are nonetheless undeniable.