A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Screenshot of a COVID-19 tracking map based on figures collected by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSCE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) I don't have any patience for fools. Especially fools who tend to see everything in terms of "conservatives vs. liberals," specifically when those folks tend to support that most foolish of Presidents, Donald Trump. As you are no doubt aware, the world is in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic that began in Wuhan, China late last year (hence its label COVID-19) and, thanks to the smaller-world effects of jet travel, global trade, and cruise ship tourism (among other factors) has spread to the rest of good ol' Planet Earth. Because it's a novel virus, like SARS was in the early 21st Century, so far there is no vaccine or quick-remedy medicine. Unlike Stephen King's fictional "Captain Trips" superflu from his 1978 novel  The Stand, COVID-19 doesn't have a 99.9% mortality rate that wil...

Photo Credits: © Kristian Schuller (Anne-Sophie Mutter). © Kristin Pulito (John Williams). Album Cover Art © 2019 Deutsche Grammophon On August 30, 2019, Deutsche Grammophon (a Germany-based subsidiary of the U.S. conglomerate Universal Music Group) released Across the Stars: Anne-Sophie Mutter - John Williams , a 12-track album which presents some of Academy Award and Grammy-winning composer/conductor John Williams' breathtaking movie themes. Rearranged for solo violin and orchestra by Maestro Williams, this collection of film themes is performed by the world-renowned German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Recording Arts Orchestra of Los Angeles, under the baton of Maestro Williams himself. As I wrote in my review of the August 2019 CD: "Across the Stars: Anne-Sophie Mutter - John Williams is a wonderful showcase for two masterful musicians. Once again, the legendary composer and conductor weaves his magic as an orchestrator by taking compositions that were ...

Cover art for Across the Stars: Deluxe Edition .  © 2019 Deutsche Grammophon. Hi, there, Constant Reader. It's early afternoon this Friday 13, 2020 here in my corner of Florida. Here, as elsewhere throughout the world, we are beginning to feel anxiety over COVD-19, aka the novel coronavirus that is on everyone's minds. I'm a bit on edge myself; last week we were at Disney Hollywood Studios to visit Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge , and although I didn't see anyone sneezing or coughing, one never knows where the COVD-19 virus might be lurking. So, even though I don't feel sick, in the back of my mind I'm like Oh, my God. I was in a place where there were huge crowds from all over. What if just one of those visitors had COVD-19 but was still asymptomatic?  Anyway, I don't feel sick at the moment, but I do fret when I get a headache or even feel a slight urge to sneeze. It's driving me crazy. So much so that even though I've been awake since 8 or so...

Screenshot of my Blu-ray.com DVD Collection A-C page.  Before I bought my first Blu-ray discs ( Batman Begins and Spider-Man 3 ) in 2009, I already had a nice collection of movies and TV shows on the then-dominant DVD format. I probably had around 80-90% of the DVDs I have now back then, and even though lately I have been focusing on new releases in Blu-ray instead of trying to replace all of my DVDs on a one-to-one basis, I still have had to buy a few new titles that are still only available on the older format.  Also, some titles, such as Paramount/Lucasfilm's The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones (three boxed sets) have not been offered on Blu-ray. As is the case with my Blu-ray collection, I do not have a huge DVD library. As of this blog post, I own 157 feature films and 78 TV seasons, and a grand total of 186 SKUs. That's not an impressive number; I know some folks that have - easily - DVD collections that are four, five, even six times larger than mine. But it is...

A screenshot of my Blu-ray.com Collection page, as it appeared in December 2019 I've been collecting Blu-ray discs of movies and TV series I like since I purchased my first player and a high-definition TV in 2009. It's not a massive collection by any means; as of this writing, I have 276 feature film titles and 47 seasons' worth of television series in two Blu-ray formats (HD and 4K UHD). Considering that I have been purchasing Blu-rays for almost 11 years, I don't think that is an impressive haul, although it's not a pitifully small collection by any stretch of the imagination. I am also not very good with numbers, but I am extremely fascinated by collectors' statistics. So when I learned that my Blu-ray.com account's Collection page has a statistics function, I immediately checked it out to see if I could get a by-the-numbers breakdown of my Blu-ray collection. Happily, the answer was "Yes," and I discovered that Blu-ray.com can give you...

Han Solo's mentor in the smuggling enterprise, Tobias Beckett, is the inspiration for Star Wars: The Black Series' 68th 6-in. scale action figure. Photo Credit: Hasbro, Inc. © 2018 Hasbro and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) At the 115th North American International Toy Fair, which was held in February of 2018 in New York City's Jacob K. Javitz Convention Center, Hasbro unveiled a variety of new products at its showroom. Among these was a "wave" of Star Wars: The Black Series 6-inch scale action figures which depicted characters from Solo: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: A New Hope, and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.  This initial three-figure wave   consisted of: #68 Tobias Beckett   #69 Rebel Trooper #70 Han Solo (Bespin)  Hasbro shipped these figures, along with other Star Wars- themed toys and collectibles, to stores in the summer, and by July of 2018, they were available in brick-and-mortar stores as well as online retailers such as Amazon, shopDis...

Illustration by Erik_Erik via Pixabay Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of Bloggin' On, the blog-within-a-blog section of A Certain Point of View that by design is not devoted to politics or reviews. It's Monday, March 9, 2020, and it's already mid-morning in my corner of Florida. Outside, the temperature in my area is 68℉ (20℃) under mostly cloudy skies. The forecast calls for a high of 76℉ (24℃) and a low of 59℉ (15℃) is expected for tonight.  I'm really tired today. I had a rare but enervating bout of insomnia last night: I was a bit drowsy around 10 or so. but the drowsiness vanished sometime around 11 PM. I watched eight episodes of Star Wars: Resistance back-to-back, thus finishing the second and final season of that Sequel Trilogy era animated series from Lucasfilm Animation. I also read a chapter and a half of Richard B. Frank's Tower of Skulls: A History of the Asia-Pacific War - July 1937-May 1942 in an effort to get s...