Bowing to pressure

Movie Review: Into The Woods

My most vocal reader has been complaining about the way I do the blog these days.  The jumps from the main page to the content, I mean.  And so, in an effort to give the people what they want (a quote - and not a very nice one, I might add - from one of our founding fathers about "The People," comes to mind), I will put my latest review here, below.  On the main page.  Yes, there is still a little jump to open the rest of the content, but if you can't live with that concession, then... complain some more and I'll cave on that too, I guess.  I feel like such a sell-out.

Into The Woods (2014)



A witch tasks a childless baker and his wife with procuring magical items from classic fairy tales to reverse the curse put on their family tree.  Short synopsis of Into the Woods taken from IMDb.com

I thought "This is a good idea," when Into The Woods began screening on my TV.  But what started as a good idea seemed then to drag itself to death, and bore me in the process.  First of all, I know this is based on some Broadway play or something, and the idea is good, as I said.  But really, there is WAY too much singing going on.  The lyrics are very clever, and the characterizations of the fairy tale folk works nicely, in theory.  But I got tired of the plot very fast.  I thought it was too much of a good thing in places, and so it seemed to overflow its banks and get messy.  The plot needed tightening up.  Or lose a character.  I vote we kick Rapunzel off the island.  She doesn't do anything anyway!

Aliens exist. It's conspiracy theories I'm afraid of.

A rare Op-Ed piece today.  This one has been sitting around a few years too.

Op-Ed: Little Green Men in the West Desert


Careful!  They're ruffled!

An informative look into an often maligned board game

You should really give the movie Ouija a chance to scare you silly.  It tries, darn it.  It really tries. 

Movie Review: Ouija

And (tongue firmly planted in cheek) here is another "super-scary" Ouija story, just in case you saw the film already and, like me, you found it to be more than a little wanting in the fright department.

ouija board scare

You just can't make stuff like that up.

Another board game you shouldn't let your kids play with, lest it give them bad ideas and influence them for evil. / Source: boardgamegeek.com

And the next lucky winner is...

You all may have noticed (all three of you, that is) that the blog has slowed down of late.  After such a full posting set a couple months ago, both my interest and my time have flagged somewhat.  But luckily, I still have some reviews from the by-gone times when I stacked up piles of notes to publish at some later date.  My short review of Shirley Jackson's seminal classic, The Lottery, is among those notes that have been waiting.

Book Review: The Lottery

I'll try to get some semi-fresh review material up soon.  I finished reading both Stranger in a Strange Land and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy recently, so those should be forthcoming soon.


Not that sort of lottery.  Plus I don't think Yoda believes in luck.  I could be wrong, of course.

A practical look at astrology?

Nope, just a movie review.  This time it's Jupiter Ascending.  Was it worth the cheap seats ticket price for me and my family?  You'll find out.

Movie Review: Jupiter Ascending

Source: joyreactor.com

Buried treasure just seems silly

I mean, who would bury their treasure?  I can see trying to hide it.  But why bury it?  Ben Gunn's re-arrangement of the location of the titular treasure in Treasure Island makes perfect sense.  But of course, he couldn't spend a single coin of it, so it kind of defeats the purpose of squirreling away an ill-gotten investment.

Either way, Treasure Island is worth the read.

Book Review: Treasure Island



Source: Pintrest

Source: bmj2k.com / The inestimable Bill Watterson

Philosophers hunting for buried treasure?  Nice. / Source: pintrest.com