A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

5.0 out of 5 stars   Star Wars: The Original Radio Drama: A Brilliant "Tour de Force" of the Force on Radio May 3, 2003 By  Alex Diaz-Granados   Format: Audio CD At first, the idea seems bizarre, even ridiculous. Star Wars, a movie best known for its vistas of alien worlds and epic battles, as a 13 part radio drama? No way would it work, right? Well, unless you have the cold heart of a Sith, Star Wars did indeed translate well from the silver screen to radio, thank you very much. Yes, Star Wars' visual effects are a big part of the magic of the saga, but the heart and soul of George Lucas' galaxy far, far away are the characters and the storyline. And while the movie is satisfying on its own, the radio dramatization written by the late Brian Daley takes us beyond the movie....beyond the screenplay...and even beyond the novelization. By expanding the movie's story beyond its two hour running time, the Radio Drama allows us to catch glimpses of Luk...

It's been a while since I last wrote about Karlie Tomica, the 20-year-old Nikki Beach bartender who killed   Stefano Riccioletti as she drove back home, drunk as the proverbial skunk, on the early morning hours of Jan. 29. The passage of time has done nothing to assuage my anger about this case of a reckless driver who, as Miami Beach Police detective Vivian Hernandez tells the Miami New Times' Lanie Doss, was highly intoxicated. In an article dated February 12,   The New Times' Short Order blogger writes: MBPD Detective Vivian Hernandez confirmed the findings to Short Order. "Yes. She was three times above the legal limit." Hernandez also said that Tomica will have to appear in court and face additional charges.  Though law enforcement officers had only charged Tomica with leaving the scene of an accident which resulted in death, they did so only to wait for the toxicology reports.  Tomica now faces serious charges, including one for driving under the inf...

The Second World War was the largest, bloodiest conflict in history. It was fought on three of the seven continents and involved every major power of the time. Some of the combatant nations (most notably France and Italy) changed sides at least once between 1939 and 1945, and by the time Japan surrendered on Sept. 2, 1945 over 50 million men, women, and children were dead, millions more were wounded and/or uprooted, homeless, and bewildered by the war's effects. Indeed, those of us now living in the early 21st century are still living with the aftermath of World War II; many of the crises we now face can be traced to decisions made during or shortly after the war. John Keegan's The Second World War is a one-volume general history of the 1939-45 conflict, and it should be read more as an introductory text rather than a comprehensive "this-is-the-book-that-explains-the-whole-darned-thing" opus. It's too short (595 pages, not counting the bibliography or i...

In 1991, Bantam Spectra Books and Lucasfilm Limited joined forces to re-launch the dormant  Star Wars  franchise with the publication of Timothy Zahn's  Star Wars: Heir to the Empire , the first volume of a three-book cycle known as The Thrawn Trilogy . Eight years had passed since the theatrical run of  Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi,  and only a few Lando Calrissian novels, a moribund Marvel Comics series and a West End Games role-playing game were "keeping the flame" for fans who wondered when - or  if  -  Star Wars  creator George Lucas would complete the long-rumored  nine-part  saga made up of  three  Trilogies - the Classic, the Prequels and a Sequel Trilogy set decades after  Return of the Jedi. Heir to the Empire,  which is set five years after the climactic events of  Episode VI,  not only updated readers on how the lives of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca,...

24: The Complete Series           Reviewer’s Note: This Epinion focuses solely on the  24: The Complete Series  box set (DVD format) and its particular features.  It doesn’t contain any season-specific content. It doesn't discuss plot or characters, either. However, links to the author’s reviews of the seven seasons found in the Epinions database have been provided in the   Content  section of this review:  On November 6, 2001, the Fox television network aired the first episode of  24,  a hybrid of the action/espionage/political thriller and nighttime soap opera genres. Created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran ( La Femme Nikita ) and starring Kiefer Sutherland as Federal counterterrorist agent Jack Bauer,  24  portrays the events of a single day in “real time.”  The series ran for nine years and eight seasons – the seventh being delayed by almost a year due to the Writer’s Guild strike of 2007-2008; ...

There are times when I wonder why many  people, particularly young people, simply don't understand why there are laws that prohibit driving motor vehicles after drinking alcohol or doing drugs. After all, we've known that drinking and driving are a dangerous mix ever since the Automobile Age began at the turn of the 20th Century. Operating any type of vehicle under any circumstance is a complex process which requires much care and mental acuity. Drivers need to have quick reflexes and what aircraft pilots call "situation awareness" in order to avoid an accident while going from Point A to Point B.  Alcohol tends to dull the senses, impairs judgment and slows the mind's ability to react quickly, especially in situations when split-second decisions have to be made. That's why there are laws on the books to deter or punish individuals who choose to get behind the wheel of a vehicle after having several drinks. Well, apparently Karlie Tomica, 20, didn't ge...

My Apartment in Sevilla It wasn't exactly my apartment per se because I had to share Apartamento 2E at No. 1 Virgen de Robledo with two Spanish roommates.  When I arrived in Spain on September 21, 1988 I had it all to myself for about a week and a half; Juan Carlos, who was 18 and hailed from Jerez de los Caballeros in Extremadura, was the first to arrive; Demetrio, 31, was from  Madrid and he rented a room in that apartment every fall. Apartamento 2E was owned by a middle-aged couple and was one of the many such lodgings used by the College Consortium for International Studies  to house American participants in its Semester in Spain program.  In my group, most of us lived in these residencias or in private homes with host families.  If memory serves, a few students opted to rent their own places without having to deal with Spanish roommates or host families; these, however, were a tiny subgroup in our 42-member CCIS Fall Term class. Even though you...