A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (HHGTTG) (2005) Directed by: Gareth Jennings Written by: Douglas Adams, Karey Kirkpatrick Based on:    The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams Starring: Martin Freeman, Yasin Bey (as Mos Def), Zooey Deschanel, Sam Rockwell, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Helen Mirren, Warwick Davis, Anna Chancellor, Bill Nighy, John Malkovich The Book : The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. More popular, certainly more successful than the Celestial Home Care Omnibus , better selling than Fifty-Three More Things to do in Zero Gravity , and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes and Who is This God Person Anyway? On April 29, 2005, one day after its London premiere, the long-awaited film adaptation of Douglas Adams' sci-fi comedy novel  The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ...

Hi, Dear Reader, and welcome to another installment of Bloggin' On, the blog-within-a-blog where I don't write reviews (at least, not full-blown ones) or delve into politics. Think of this section of A Certain Point of View as the department of "stuff" or "miscellaneous essays" touted on the blog's home page. Well, I usually write my blog posts in the morning, but I'm off to a late start today. Right now, it's mid-afternoon here in my corner of Florida; the temperature outside is 65℉ (19℃) under partly sunny skies, which isn't too bad, all things considered. It's nice and cool without being bone-chillingly cold, although it is advisable to wear long-sleeved button-downs or light jackets if you're going to venture outside (I hardly ever do, although I should) on days like this. If I do decide to go out for a stroll, I need to do it before the sun sets; as the day's light dies and gives way to night, the temperature will dr...

Photo Illustration Credit: Pixabay Last night, while I was on Twitter, I came across a tweet by novelist Harry Turtledove, the guy who writes alternative history novels along the lines of Guns of the South and Ruled Britannia. I follow him on Twitter, and although I can't say we are "friends" or even "acquaintances," we have exchanged tweets and replies on that social medium. He has even liked quite a few of my tweets, especially if they are about writing, books, or politics. (On that topic, we both share a dislike for Donald Trump and his divisive brand of "conservatism.") Anyway, before I logged off from my computer last night before dinner, I came across one of Harry's typically clever tweets: Harry Turtledove @HNTurtledove · Jan 28 #AddAWordRuinABook For Whom the Jingle Bell Tolls To Have Lunch and to Have Not The Great Big Gatsby Catcher in the Rye Bread The Halloween Mask of Apollo Johnny Got His S...

Photo Illustration: Pixabay Hello, Gentle Reader, and welcome to another edition of Bloggin' On, the blog-within-a-blog where I don't write either political commentary (which is not my forte anyway) or write reviews of movies, books, TV shows, or music albums. This, if you will, is my "miscellaneous" or even my "personal space" section, and I'll be talking a little bit about this and a little bit about that. It's already early afternoon here in my little nook of Florida, and it's a lovely late January day here. The weather is quite pleasant right now; the temperature outside is 66℉ (19℃) under mostly sunny skies; per the forecast, it might get a bit warmer as the high is expected to reach 71℉ (22℃). Tonight the low is expected to reach 54℉ (10℃) around 11 PM Eastern time. Those temperatures are not ones in which I'd stay out-of-doors without the proper cool weather clothing, but they remind me of the typical late fall climate in Sevi...

Illustration Credit: Pixabay Hello there! Welcome to another installment of Bloggin' On , my blog-within-a-blog where I don't write reviews or dabble with political commentary. It's early afternoon on this Monday in my little corner of Florida, and the weather outside isn't frightful; the current temperature is 66℉ (19℃) under cloudy skies, and the low tonight is expected to reach 55℉ (13℃). It was supposed to rain this morning, but there's no evidence outside that any precipitation fell here, so that part of the forecast was off. My friend and filmmaking partner Juan Carlos Hernandez updated me over the weekend about the progress of our film Ronnie and Her Two Nincompoops. (That's the working title Juan chose; I don't know what he and our producer - and Juan's wife - Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez will choose.) The "shooting" (principal photography) phase is over, now Juan, Adria, and their son Anthony are doing post-production work: editing,...

© 2009 Windstar Productions and Eagle Rock Entertainment.  Cover photo © 1981, 2009 Stars and Stripes On October 13, 2009, Eagle Rock Entertainment (through its Eagle Vision distribution arm) released John Denver: Rocky Mountain High - Live in Japan, a DVD that presents a performance by singer-songwriter-actor John Denver recorded live at Tokyo's NHK Hall in May of 1981. Featuring a set of 18 songs that were, at the time, among Denver's "greatest hits," this 72-minutes-long presentation captures one of America's greatest performers at the apex of his musical career. It also gives viewers who were born after Denver's all-too-soon passing in 1997 a time machine into the past to see the then-37-year-old superstar charm his mostly-Japanese audience with his natural wit and gentle demeanor as well as with his musical gifts. (Note: The above video is from another Eagle Rock Entertainment concert DVD.) Filmed in 1981, this concert captures John Denver at t...

Carmen (1984) Based On: Carmen, an 1875 opera by Georges Bizet. Libretto by Henri Meilhac & Ludovic Halévy based on  Carmen, a novella by Prosper Mérimée Adapted by: Francesco Rosi and Tonino Guerra Directed by: Francesco Rosi Starring; Placido Domingo, Julia Migenes-Johnson, Ruggero Raimondi, Faith Esham, John-Paul Bogart, Susan Daniel Theatrical release poster for Carmen. © 1984 Gaumont and Opera Film Produzione On September 20, 1984, six months and six days after its premiere in France, U.S. audiences first saw director Francesco Rosi's adaptation of Carmen, the classic opera by Georges Bizet, Henri Meilhac, and Ludovic Halévy (which was based on the eponymous novel by Prosper Mérimée). Starring Placido Domingo as Don Jose and Julia Migenes-Johnson as Carmen, the film is, as the late Roger Ebert wrote in his contemporary review , "the Raiders of the Lost Ark of opera films." Filmed entirely in Andalusia, Spain and set in 1875-era Sevilla (Sev...

I took this photo of the man-made East Wind Lake during one of my daily walks around my former neighborhood in June of 2014. (Photo Credit: Alex Diaz-Granados - own work) Hello, Constant Reader, and welcome once again to Bloggin' On, the no-reviews, no-politics zone of A Certain Point of View where I talk about what I am up to and things that are on my mind. Think of it, if you will, as a blog-within-a-blog that lets you get to know me a little better. Right now it's past noon in my corner of Florida; the temperature outside is 75℉ (24℃) under partly sunny skies, which is comfortably nice for the season. The high temperature for the area is expected to reach 76℉ (24℃); the low tonight will be 56℉ (14℃), and no rain is expected to fall in our area, either. I had planned to write a review of John Denver: Rocky Mountain High - Live in Japan, but even though the DVD arrived yesterday afternoon, I have not watched it. When I went to bed last night, I promised myself tha...

My mom as she was on this date in 2009. Little did we know that she only had six years left to live and that of those, her last five would be her worst.  (Photo Credit: Alex Diaz-Granados) Tempus fugit. It's still a source of astonishment and bewilderment to me, even a decade later, how unpredictable and traumatizing life changes can be. Consider my mother's last 14 years on Earth. She entered the 21st Century (back in 2001) a bit slowed by the passage of time but still full of life and hope for the future, and died lost in a fog of dementia and impotence in the summer of 2015, leaving behind two adult children who distrust and dislike each other.    Between January of 2001 and July 19, 2015, my poor mom went through the following health crises: A diagnosis of gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE), which is often referred to as watermelon stomach. Per the Mayo Clinic's website,"the term comes from the internal appearance of the stomach lining in those...

Portrait of the Screenwriter As a Young Man, circa 1986. (Photo Credit: Peter C. Townsend) Hello, there, Constant Reader, and welcome once again to Bloggin' On, the blog-within-a-blog section of A Certain Point of View where I don't "do" reviews or the occasional bit of political commentary. It's Wednesday, January 22, 2020, although because it was a three-day weekend due to the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, it feels oddly like it's Tuesday...and a spectacularly cold Tuesday at that. Right now (it's mid-morning as I write this) the temperature outside is 36℉ (3℃) under sunny skies, although the wind chill lowers the feels-like temperature to the freezing point. The temperature will rise a bit as the hours pass; the forecast calls for a high of 60℉ (16℃) and some cloudiness, but overall, by Florida standards, it's going to be  c-c-c-cold out there. Yesterday I got (via text) an update on our comedy film project from actor-director Juan Car...

Hey, there, Dear Reader. Hi and welcome to another installment of Bloggin' On,   the blog-within-a-blog section of A Certain Point of View where I step out of my usual roles of media product reviewer and political commentator and share my thoughts and observations about other topics that I think might be of general interest. Well, my friends, a cold front has passed through the part of Florida where I live; the current temperature is 39℉ (4℃) under clear skies, and the National Weather Service has issued a freeze watch for our area. It's still dark outside (it's not quite 7 AM as I write this), and it will warm up some by the middle of the afternoon; the forecast calls for a high of 54℉ (12℃) and, at night, a low of 32℉ (0℃). Inside the house, we will be relatively warmer, and I doubt that I'll have much reason to wander outside. If you're a regular reader of A Certain Point of View, you probably remember that on January 10 I reviewed the Blu-ray edition of w...