Author: DOuG pRATt

Go Fluke yourself, Rush

I registered as a Democrat during Bill Clinton’s second term. I’m a social liberal, but I’d call myself a fiscal conservative, although my definition of conservatism doesn’t include wild speculative investing and unregulated financial markets.

Boston-based GOP consultant, and former reporter, Meredith Warren is my kind of Republican. On Tuesday’s The Takeaway, she explained why she thinks the Republican Party is going down the wrong path with the recent emphasis on women’s issues. At least everybody seems to agree that Rush Limbaugh’s personal attack on Sandra Fluke is unforgivable.

[audio:http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/audio.wnyc.org/takeaway/takeaway031312l.mp3|titles=The Takeaway: Republicans and women]

Firesign before Python

Before I first heard Monty Python on WBCN in Boston in 1971-72, the station played records by the comedy troupe The Firesign Theatre. Founding member Peter Bergman has died. In The Further Adventures of Nick Danger, Third Eye, Bergman played Lt. Bradshaw, as heard in this audio clip.

http://youtu.be/Ouuq5J7lSuY

The first three Firesign Theatre albums are my favorites. They’re smart, savvy, carefully crafted, intricate, subversive, and for myself Nick Danger led to an interest in what is now called Old Time Radio. For someone of my generation, the Firesign Theatre records hold up well to repeated listenings, and they evoke a great deal of nostalgia. There was that time in college, in a dorm room that was not mine, listening to Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers, and… uh… well, never mind about that.

“… and there’s hamburger all over the highway in Mystic, Connecticut…”

Moebius strip

When I noted the passing of Ralph McQuarrie last week, I also thought of the cartoonist Jean Giraud, and now the man who called himself Moebius is also dead. Giraud came to mind because he was one of the artists who worked on Alien, along with Ron Cobb and H.R. Giger. As influential as Star Wars was, only two years later, while The Empire Strikes Back was in production, Alien redefined the look and feel of Sci-Fi movies.

A close encounter with Douglas Trumbull

Director and legendary special effects wizard Douglas Trumbull lives in Western Massachusetts. Monday on WBUR he spoke with Tom Ashbrook about the future of cinema.

[audio:http://audio.wbur.org/storage/2012/03/onpoint_0305_2.mp3|titles=Tom Ashbrook interviews Douglas Trumbull]

Trumbull talks about 3-D movies, and he brings up the very important point that 3-D is very DIM in movie theaters, and they need to be much brighter. I’d go further and say that in general movies are, like today’s comic books, much too dark and colorless.