To Sir John Hurt, with love…

Famed, Oscar-nominated British actor Sir John Hurt  passed away only last week (just a few days after his 77th birthday). He was one of my favorite character actors over the last few decades, and he became a favorite of mine almost without me realizing it, by stealthily disappearing into each new role.  I won’t go…

2017 feels a bit too much like “1984”…

I swore I was going to try to keep this blog apolitical, but I saw this on Wil Wheaton’s Tumblr feed this morning and it NEEDS to be repeated everywhere and anywhere: There is also an article from “The New Yorker” that deserves to be read as well: Orwell’s 1984 and Trump’s America, by Adam…

Visions of Futures Past…

We’re a few years shy of two decades into the 21st century, and I’m a graying, spectacled, middle-aged geek who’s now living in the “future”of his childhood. And so far it’s not quite the future I imagined in my youth.   Parts of it still amaze me, but the bulk of it is very underwhelming and more…

IMATS LA: I’m not makeup–er, making this up…

A few years ago back in 2014, my wife introduced me to a convention I’d never heard of, let alone attended; it was IMATS (International Makeup Artists Trade Show), Los Angeles (though it was actually held in Pasadena).   It was pretty much as advertised; cosmetics, beauty/glam makeups, special effects makeups, etc.   A place…

A Tale of Two Martians

In addition to science fiction, I’m also a lifelong fan of actual space science as well.  Certainly “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” whetted my youthful appetite for space opera and space fantasy, but it was seeing a relatively obscure 1964 movie on late-night television when I was a kid that helped in developing a future…

The Blade Runner Sequel: “a benefit or a hazard”?

Have to preface this entry by saying that I am a Blade Runner fan(atic).  Saw the original on home video in the ’80s, and like many others, it grew on me, slowly but surely.   Much later on, I read the Philip K. Dick source novel as well (“Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”).  I…