A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Promotional photo of Buena Vista Home Entertainment/Lucasfilm Ltd.'s 18-disc Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Blu-ray box set.  This is the region-free edition made for the UK/Europe but sold in the U.S. by Walmart. © 2020 Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Hi, there! Welcome to another edition of Bloggin' On, the more "personal" section of A Certain Point of View where I just chat about everyday topics and stuff that doesn't fall neatly into the categories that I usually write about ﹘ reviews, politics, or life in the time of COVID-19. It's a nice morning in my corner of Florida; as I write this, the temperature outside is 78℉ (25℃) under partly sunny skies. According to my computer's weather app, today's forecast calls for a high of 84℉ (29℃) under mostly cloudy skies. It's going to be a humid and maybe even rainy day at times (52% humidity and 60% chance of precipitation), but it doesn't look as if it is going to ...

Cover art by Drew Struzan. © 2015 Del Rey Books & Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Well, I finally did it.  After four years, a cross-state move, and a multitude of ups and downs, including adjusting to life in a new hometown, getting used to living with what amounts to a new family, and now a state of COVID-19 quarantine, I finished reading Alan Dean Foster’s novelization of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I usually don’t consider the act of finishing a book a huge achievement. I usually finish most of the books I start reading, unless I run into one that I really hate and can’t even get to the halfway mark because, ugh, it’s so awful that I’d rather have my eyes plucked out by crows rather than have to read…one…more…page.   I’ve had that unpleasant experience quite a few times in six decades’ worth of reading, and I’m sure I’ll have it a few more times before I die. The last time I felt that completing a book without skimming through “the slow parts” was worth writin...

© 2020 Del Rey Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Hi there, Constant Reader! Welcome to another edition of Bloggin' On, the no-reviews, no-politics section of my original blog, A Certain Point of View. Today is Sunday, April 12, 2020, and as I start this, morning is ending, and noon is not that far away. (By the time I'm done writing this, it'll be afternoon here in my corner of Florida.) Before I get to the main topic of this post ﹘ my reading list for April 2020 ﹘  I need to update you on what's going on with my blog and why I'm not posting here as often as I was before late March. I have had to slow my pace of one-post-per-diem on Blogger for one reason: Facebook has blocked this blog from its site. I have two theories as to why this was done, though I'm more inclined to put more weight on one of them above the other theory. Theory No. 1: Someone on Facebook, more than likely a Trump supporter, reported one or more of my posts to Facebook's Comm...

Promotional photo of Buena Vista Home Entertainment's Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga box set. © 2020 Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) On March 31, Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. released Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga , a 27-disc box set that collects the nine "Saga" Episodes set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" as a Best Buy exclusive. Dropped on the same day that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was officially released on individual 4K UHD and HD Blu-ray sets, this huge box set marks the first time that the three Star Wars trilogies are collected in a single bundle. From a young Anakin Skywalker's descent into the dark side to the rise of the Resistance and their struggle to restore peace in the galaxy, the story that electrified a generation comes to a striking conclusion. The saga will end. The story lives forever. -  Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga  publicity insert. Star Wars: The Skywalker Sag...

Promotional photo of Buena Vista Home Entertainment/Lucasfilm's S tar Wars: The Skywalker Saga  box set, a Best Buy exclusive. © 2020 Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Hi, there, Dear Reader. I hope this post finds you safe, healthy, and adjusting to the new realities of living in the "dark times" of the novel coronavirus pandemic. I know that you must be feeling frustrated and scared about the effects of social distancing, working from home, and the effects of a "lockdown" on the economy. I, too, am fretting about the same things, and I am hoping that the pandemic will reach a peak and eventually peter out as a result of prudent self-quarantining and other preventive measures. If you know the history of how I became a Star Wars fan back in 1977, you doubtlessly understand that the franchise created nearly 45 years ago by George Lucas has helped me cope with sad and stressful situations. If you don't, all you have to know is that...

Slipcover art from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker's Multi-Screen Edition Blu-ray. © 2019, 2020 Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Well, it's Sunday, March 29, 2020, and it's the last weekend of a tumultuous month unlike any other since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against America. Once again, the entire country is facing a danger that's posed not just to human lives, but to the values that many of us hold dear - civility, decency, moral courage, and a belief that we as a nation can unite despite partisan divisions and persevere in the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, unlike those dark and scary times after the Twin Towers fell and part of the Pentagon was scarred by the impact of an American Airlines Boeing 757 hijacked by Al Qaeda terrorists, when a mediocre Republican President named George W. Bush managed to rally the nation and prepared to strike back at our enemies, the ship of state is rudderless,. Most of...

Illustration Credit: Pixabay Another message to my conservative friends in South Florida and elsewhere, especially those who are die-hard loyalists of Donald Trump: Dear Friends, Do you remember those long-ago (or seemingly so) days in 2015 and early 2016, during the Republican Presidential primary season, when it looked like Donald Trump might, just might, become the presumptive nominee of your party? We warned you then: "He's not fit for the Presidency. He is a con man. A bigot. A notorious liar and braggart. He has no experience in government. He is abrasive and spiteful. A Trump Presidency will be disastrous." You dismissed us. You laughed at us. You bought your red MAGA caps (made in China, by the way) and called us "snowflakes." "Communists." "Libtards." You mocked us for wanting to avoid putting a rude, crude, and inept "businessman" in the White House. You had the gall to post photos of Melania Trump and opine th...