“My list of top ten movies this year is just Looper eleven times.” -Bryan Lee O’Malley
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Posted with Blogsy
Quote of the Day
“In an effort to be more like my fellow Avenger, Tony Stark, I have had an electronic pacemaker placed near my heart to ensure that I’ll be able to lead thee for another 90 years.”
-Stan Lee
-Stan Lee
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Quote of the Day
“Maybe I’ll make people stand on their tippy-toes just to change it up a little. ‘Stand on your tippy-toes before Zod.’”
-Man Of Steel‘s Michael Shannon
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
-Man Of Steel‘s Michael Shannon
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Vancouver Facts
is the largest film production center in North-America after Los Angeles and New York City.
attracts 15 million tourists every year and that is one of the biggest tourist attractions in British Columbia.
is only 125 years old.
is one of the few cities where you can ski and swim on the same day.
residents are called Vancouverities.
has more than 200 parks and that Stanley Park is the city’s first park.
is ranked the number 1 most livable cities in the world. (2009)
is ranked as one of the 10 cleanest cities in the world.
is the largest port in Canada.
hosts a fireworks competition every year.
is the largest metropolitan area in Western Canada.
hosts one of the country's largest annual gay pride parades.
attracts 15 million tourists every year and that is one of the biggest tourist attractions in British Columbia.
is only 125 years old.
is one of the few cities where you can ski and swim on the same day.
residents are called Vancouverities.
has more than 200 parks and that Stanley Park is the city’s first park.
is ranked the number 1 most livable cities in the world. (2009)
is ranked as one of the 10 cleanest cities in the world.
is the largest port in Canada.
hosts a fireworks competition every year.
is the largest metropolitan area in Western Canada.
hosts one of the country's largest annual gay pride parades.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Movie to See
Star Trek Into Darkness
The Star Trek reboot continues May 17th with a J.J. Abrams directed take on a story that looks suspiciously like Wrath of Khan. British sensation Benedict Cumberbatch as the villain John Harrison. But is it Khan or Mitchell?
Can't wait either way!
The Star Trek reboot continues May 17th with a J.J. Abrams directed take on a story that looks suspiciously like Wrath of Khan. British sensation Benedict Cumberbatch as the villain John Harrison. But is it Khan or Mitchell?
Can't wait either way!
Sunday, December 23, 2012
The Americans
FX’s new drama The Americans will premiere on Wednesday, January 30 at 10/9c.
Cold War Russian Spies in USA suburbia.
Cold War Russian Spies in USA suburbia.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Quote of the Day
Garak: It’s vile
Quark: I know. It’s so bubbly and cloying and happy.
Garak: Just like the Federation.
Quark: But you know what’s really frightening? If you drink enough of it, you start to like it.
Garak: It’s insidious.
Quark: Just like the Federation.
-DS9, "The Way of the Warrior"
Scifi of the Day
Brazil (1985)
Terry Gilliam’s masterpiece of absurdist dystopia, Brazil is about a lowly office worker in a future city riddled by terrorists and ruled by bureaucrats. He just wants to spend his days dreaming about being a ninja who rescues a damsel in distress — until he meets the damsel in real life, discovers she’s a subversive truck driver, and is plunged into a nightmare of love and political repression. Full of the bizarre imagery that made Gilliam famous during his Monty Python animator days, Brazil will warp your mind and break your heart.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
StressFree Travel Tip #3
Talk To A Human
Your new travel mantra: human being. While it may seem cheaper and easier to book your flight on the Internet, remember that many Web sites pose as informational when they are, in fact, transactional—trying to push the sale. I’m not saying not to use the Internet; I’m just saying not to book your flight there first. Instead, quickly go online and find out which airlines service the route you want to take, then type in gethuman.com, which will tell you how to maneuver quickly through the customer-service tree of your chosen airlines. Now, pick up the phone
StressFree Travel Tip#2
Never Call Toll-Free Numbers
The same thing applies to making a reservation for a hotel room. Never call the 800 toll-free number to find a hotel room from a large chain. You’ll only be connected to a third-party clearinghouse with a mandate to sell rooms at a designated price—no room to negotiate. Instead, call the hotel directly. But don’t ask for reservations—they’ll just reroute you back to that 800 number. Instead, ask to speak to the manager on duty or the director of sales. They are the best arbiters of their room inventory. If the Schmidlap wedding party canceled last night and they suddenly have 60 rooms to sell, that 800 number (or the chain’s Web site) may not have that information. You’re now in the best negotiating position. And an even better reason to talk to a human being at the hotel: You’ve established a relationship. Look for that person when you check in and you stand a much better chance for an upgrade.
Quote of the Day
“You wanted to frighten us. We’re frightened. You wanted to show us that we were inadequate. For the moment, I grant that. You wanted me to say, ‘I need you’? I need you!” (Picard to Q)
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Quote of the Day
Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya! You killed my father! Prepare to die!
-Mandy Patinkin confronts his father’s killer (Waiting For Guffman director Christopher Guest) in "The Princess Bride"
StressFree Travel Tip #1
Stay Flexible
If all the flights to your destination city are booked, think alternate airports (Providence instead of Boston, Oakland instead of San Francisco, Milwaukee instead of Chicago, to mention just a few) or routings that get you to Hawaii, for example, through Denver, Phoenix, or Las Vegas. You’ll almost always save money and in many cases have less stress (and fewer delays) because you’ll avoid the giant airports. For example, Midway has fewer delays than O’Hare, and Long Beach has a better record than LAX.
Scifi of the Day
The Purge
Movie synopsis
If on one night every year, you could commit any crime without facing consequences, what would you do? In The Purge, a speculative thriller that follows one family over the course of a single night, four people will be tested to see how far they will go to protect themselves when the vicious outside world breaks into their home. In an America wracked by crime and overcrowded prisons, the government has sanctioned an annual 12-hour period in which any and all criminal activity-including murder-becomes legal. The police can’t be called. Hospitals suspend help. It’s one night when the citizenry regulates itself without thought of punishment.
On this night plagued by violence and an epidemic of crime, one family wrestles with the decision of who they will become when a stranger comes knocking. When an intruder breaks into James Sandin’s (Ethan Hawke) gated community during the yearly lockdown, he begins a sequence of events that threatens to tear a family apart. Now, it is up to James, his wife, Mary (Lena Headey), and their kids to make it through the night without turning into the monsters from whom they hide. Directed by James DeMonaco (writer of Assault on Precinct 13 and The Negotiator).
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Scifi of the Day
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Released just a few years after the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki shocked the world, this was a rare anti-war movie at a time when the Cold War was quickly dividing the world’s nations. Full of innovative design, an alien who actually speaks an alien tongue instead of English, and a complicated message about geopolitics, The Day the Earth Stood Still was a movie that pushed its audience to think of themselves as humans rather than Americans.
Quote of the Day
“Five men held you down and took your virginity,” Mary Eunice. “Well, the first one did. The others took your dignity, your self-esteem and, most importantly… your Christmas spirit.”
-AHS
Monday, December 17, 2012
Scifi of the Day
Looper (2012)
Rian Johnson’s gritty movie about gangsters who use time travel to commit perfect assassinations is both an incredible science fiction story and an unflinching look at how difficult it is to break cycles of violence — in families as well as societies. The final twist will leave you feeling broken inside. And you’ll like it.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Quote of the Day
Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.
-Rainer Maria Rilke
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Bejing school attacked vs Newtown school attacked
1. A violently deranged man attacked a school of children with a knife in China and injured something like 20 people, no deaths.
2. A violently deranged man attacked a school of children with two firearms in the USA and kills have 18 kids.
Connecticut Shooting
I am exhausted.
As an American living in Europe, I feel I find myself almost monthly having defend my homeland's high gun death rate. And then there's the latest high body count... Europeans will not even LISTEN to you when you start to speak about the Second Amendment or the politics of Gun Control or the NRA or the fear of tyranny ...and the list goes on.
I find myself simply exhausted, tired, drained, etc.
There IS violence here, make no mistake, but someone with a grudge or a mental illness or just plain evil in his heart has a harder time acting on those impulses and harming the rest of us.
After spending so much time here, the situational awareness that I had when leaving the USA has disappeared. I no longer look over my shoulder or even scope out potential danger spots in my neighborhood. I am safe to walk my city at all hours of the day, even in some cases after a few drinks, without a heightened level of fear.
I used to think the above was making me frighteningly vulnerable, like a soldier who losses his edge at home before heading back to war.
Again, I find myself exhausted when I have to explain this to anyone here. They just don't get it. I hit them with the facts (and you can see the fear and disbelief in their eyes)...
a) The USA is saturated with firearms. We have more than 300 million of them and more than 4 million more come into circulation every year. Eradication is impossible.
b) There ARE gun laws. But the gun show "loophole" allows gun sales WITHOUT a background check. SO the laws on the book become meaningless.
c) The mentally ill have a great many laws on their side and ability to buy guns is one of them. We take medical privacy very serious in the USA, even to the point of making it easy for psychopaths and the violently deranged to gain weapons.
d) People have every right to defend themselves, their family and their property. If people were shooting back in the Conn. tragedy perhaps less children would have been killed. Law-abiding citizens need to be allowed to end these situations BEFORE they escalate especially in a gun saturated nation as ours.
I love my country. I can not help but feel hot tears when I think of the senseless deaths visited upon her every day. Now the evil death of children. The greatest nation on earth has one of the highest levels of gun deaths in the world, and the highest in the Industrial World. I know I will have to spend time this coming week explaining all of this to my students and friends. And to myself.
I will soon be traveling to the USA and Canada for the holidays. I hope to not be looking over my shoulder like a scared tourist. Nor giving shrill denunciations at the dinner table.
Again, as I reread what I have just read and I see the photos of the grieving and terrified parents, I feel exhausted.
Scifi of the Day
District 9 (2009)
Not since Brother from Another Planet has a science fiction movie dealt so openly and effectively with the problems that humans create by dividing themselves up along lines of race and class. When a giant spaceship parks over Johannesburg, explorers are dismayed to find that it’s full of thousands of diseased, helpless aliens — who are now under the care of the South African government. Wikus is a bureaucrat put in charge of relocating the “prawn” from their shantytown to a new refugee camp, and that’s when trouble begins. A dark satire with incredible effects and a gut-punching story, District 9 manages the seemingly-impossible: it’s a political allegory that feels like an action movie.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Quote of the Day
“I want you to meet Jonathan Swift, the author of that evil political book, Guilliver’s Travels! And this other fellow is Charles Darwin, and this one is Schopenhauer, and this one is Einstein, and this one here at my elbow is Mr. Albert Schweitzer, a very kind philosopher indeed. Here we all are, Montag. Aristophanes and Mahatma Ghandi and Gautama Buddha and Confucius and Thomas Love Peacock and Thomas Jefferson and Mr. Lincoln, if you please. We are also Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.”
-Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Scifi of the Day
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Right now it looks like Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy and Nicholas Hault will all be returning for the sequel.
The film is based on 1981 issue of Uncanny X-Men which came from writer Chris Claremont and artists John Byrne and Terry Austin. The story is set in an alternate future where surviving mutants have been thrown in concentration camps, Sentinels are patrolling America, and most of the X-Men have been hunted down and killed. The present day X-Men are forced to stop a key event from unfolding in order to keep that future from occurring.
The movie will be released in theaters on July 18th, 2014.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Pacific Rim trailer
When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity's resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes--a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi)--who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind's last hope against the mounting apocalypse.
Go here for the trailer
Go here for the trailer
Book to Movie
Ender's Game
In the near future, a hostile alien race (called the Formics) have attacked Earth. If not for the legendary heroics of International Fleet Commander, Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley), all would have been lost. In preparation for the next attack, the highly esteemed Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) and the International Military are training only the best young children to find the future Mazer. Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy, but strategically brilliant boy is pulled out of his school to join the elite.
Arriving at Battle School, Ender quickly and easily masters increasingly difficult war games, distinguishing himself and winning respect amongst his peers. Ender is soon ordained by Graff as the military’s next great hope, resulting in his promotion to Command School. Once there, he’s trained by Mazer Rackham, himself, to lead his fellow soldiers into an epic battle that will determine the future of Earth and save the human race.
In the near future, a hostile alien race (called the Formics) have attacked Earth. If not for the legendary heroics of International Fleet Commander, Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley), all would have been lost. In preparation for the next attack, the highly esteemed Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) and the International Military are training only the best young children to find the future Mazer. Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy, but strategically brilliant boy is pulled out of his school to join the elite.
Arriving at Battle School, Ender quickly and easily masters increasingly difficult war games, distinguishing himself and winning respect amongst his peers. Ender is soon ordained by Graff as the military’s next great hope, resulting in his promotion to Command School. Once there, he’s trained by Mazer Rackham, himself, to lead his fellow soldiers into an epic battle that will determine the future of Earth and save the human race.
Coming November 1st, 2013
Scifi of the Day
Christopher Nolan’s longtime cinematographer Wally Pfister's film ....
Transcendence
Here’s a synopsis:
Transcendence
Here’s a synopsis:
In it, three scientists — Max and the husband and wife team, Will and Evelyn — have been developing a programming code for the world’s first fully self-aware computer. According to the summary, a group of anti-technology terrorists assassinate Will, Evelyn uploads his brain into a prototype supercomputer. Although she at first finds the experiment seems to have gone wrong, before too long Evelyn finds Will responding in computer form. She goes on to connect Will to the Internet so he can help make further scientific breakthroughs. Will asks Evelyn to connect a microphone and a camera up to the computer so he can see and speak to her as well. Will creates a backup of himself to every computer in the world, and furthers his work through accessing online indexes. ([Producer Andrew] Kosove told TheWrap this plot point is no longer in the script.) When the anti-technology organization finds out, they try to steal the supercomputer and destroy it, but Will no longer needs the computer to survive.
Johnny Depp is slated to play Will.
Quote of the Day
“I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life, as it has been, is over. From this time forward, you will service us” -Locutus of Borg
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Article: STAR WARS Chewbacca Jacket from Marc Ecko
STAR WARS Chewbacca Jacket from Marc Ecko
http://geektyrant.com/news/2012/12/11/star-wars-chewbacca-jacket-from-marc-ecko.html
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Read me on blogger: movableteacher.blogspot.com.es
After Earth trailer
A crash landing leaves teenager Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) and his legendary father Cypher (Will Smith) stranded on Earth, 1,000 years after cataclysmic events forced humanity’s escape. With Cypher critically injured, Kitai must embark on a perilous journey to signal for help, facing uncharted terrain, evolved animal species that now rule the planet, and an unstoppable alien creature that escaped during the crash. Father and son must learn to work together and trust one another if they want any chance of returning home.
Here
Here
Scifi of the Day
Oblivion
Jack Harper (Cruise) is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack's mission is nearly complete.
Living in and patrolling the breathtaking skies from thousands of feet above, his soaring existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Scifi of the Day
The Fly (1986)
With movies like Scanners, Videodrome, and eXistenZ, Cronenberg proved himself the master of body horror and conspiracy-minded science fiction. But in The Fly, he also told a human story about a scientist whose body is accidentally reprogrammed by the teleportation machine he’s invented. With fantastic acting from Jeff Goldblum as the scientist, and Geena Davis as the science journalist who loves him, this story transcends scifi horror to become an ugly, weird commentary on science run amok, erasing all boundaries between living things.
Quote of the Day
Director Bryan Singer tweeted out a photo of him holding up the script for and on the front is a quote from This could very well be the quote that opens up the movie. Here’s what it says,
“As new species are formed through natural evolution, others will become rarer and rarer, and finally extinct. The forms which stand in closest competition with those undergoing modification and improvement will naturally suffer most.”
“As new species are formed through natural evolution, others will become rarer and rarer, and finally extinct. The forms which stand in closest competition with those undergoing modification and improvement will naturally suffer most.”
-Charles Darwin, “Origin of the Species” and possibly X-Men: Days of Future Past
Quote of the Day
Director Bryan Singer tweeted out a photo of him holding up the script for and on the front is a quote from This could very well be the quote that opens up the movie. Here’s what it says,
“As new species are formed through natural evolution, others will become rarer and rarer, and finally extinct. The forms which stand in closest competition with those undergoing modification and improvement will naturally suffer most.”
“As new species are formed through natural evolution, others will become rarer and rarer, and finally extinct. The forms which stand in closest competition with those undergoing modification and improvement will naturally suffer most.”
-Charles Darwin, “Origin of the Species” and possibly X-Men: Days of Future Past
Monday, December 10, 2012
Quote of the Day
Not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, stranded, stuck fast, untimely wounded, or otherwise deflected from its life's quest of delivering a tiny charge of genetic material to the right partner at the right moment in order to perpetuate the only possible sequence of hereditary combinations that could result -- eventually, astoundingly, and all too briefly -- in you.
Scifi of the Day
John Carpenter’s The Thing. The Thing is a terrific horror movie, one of Carpenter’s best, and if you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth a look. In Carpenter’s film (which is a remake of the ‘51 classic, The Thing From Another World; both movies take their inspiration from the John W. Campbell short story “Who Goes There?”), a group of men in a remote Antarctic research station face off against an alien which can mimic their forms exactly. This leads to a lot of paranoia, infighting, and a growing sense of horror at the implications of the threat. If they don’t defeat this creature now, if it makes it out of Antarctica and to more populated area, the human race is doomed. There will be no way to prevent it from absorbing every human being on the planet, at which point it can move on to devouring all remaining life at its leisure.
Friday, December 7, 2012
Scifi of the Day
2001 (1968)
It’s no exaggeration to say that Stanley Kubrick’s film, written by Arthur C. Clarke, changed science fiction movies forever. From its advertising-saturated future world and insane artificial intelligence HAL, to its near-mythological aliens who seem to have uplifted humans by reprogramming our distant ancestors, the ideas in 2001 blew the minds of an entire generation of movie-goers. Like Metropolis, it also set the agenda for a lot of science fiction that came afterwards, popularizing stories of A.I.s that fall prey to madness and space opera that was political as well as entertaining.
Quote of the Day
Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
-Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart)
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Scifi of the Day
The Matrix (1999)
Like Ghost in the Shell, The Matrix offers us a world where machines have as many emotions and mystical questions as humans do. After the Machines have conquered humanity and turned us into batteries to fuel their cities, a group of revolutionaries unplug from the mind-controlling Matrix and lead a human resistance. Cyber-shamanism and frenetic, gorgeous action intermingle to create one of the most brain-bending popular SF movies in recent history.
Like Ghost in the Shell, The Matrix offers us a world where machines have as many emotions and mystical questions as humans do. After the Machines have conquered humanity and turned us into batteries to fuel their cities, a group of revolutionaries unplug from the mind-controlling Matrix and lead a human resistance. Cyber-shamanism and frenetic, gorgeous action intermingle to create one of the most brain-bending popular SF movies in recent history.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
All You Need Is Kill
Release Date: March 7, 2014
What is it: Less than a year after Oblivion will succeed or fail, another Tom Cruise-starring sci-fi film will hit theaters, although this one sounds different in just about every way possible. Think of it as Groundhog Day meets Robert Heinlein: in a future war, a soldier dies in battle but finds himself caught in a time loop, forced to reliving his dying minutes over and over again, surviving longer and becoming a better warrior every time.
What is it: Less than a year after Oblivion will succeed or fail, another Tom Cruise-starring sci-fi film will hit theaters, although this one sounds different in just about every way possible. Think of it as Groundhog Day meets Robert Heinlein: in a future war, a soldier dies in battle but finds himself caught in a time loop, forced to reliving his dying minutes over and over again, surviving longer and becoming a better warrior every time.
Quote of the Day
I’m tired of being crushed under the weight of greedy men who believe in nothing.
- Jax Teller, Sons of Anarchy
Scifi of the Day
Blade Runner (1982)
Influenced stylistically by Alphaville, Blade Runner is about a detective who chases down “replicants,” or genetically engineered superhumans, who have gone rogue. Based very loosely on the work of Philip K. Dick, it was the first mainstream example of the cyberpunk style that took 1980s and 90s science fiction by storm. It’s also a profoundly moving film about remaining human in a world where everything — including humanity itself — is owned by corporations.
Influenced stylistically by Alphaville, Blade Runner is about a detective who chases down “replicants,” or genetically engineered superhumans, who have gone rogue. Based very loosely on the work of Philip K. Dick, it was the first mainstream example of the cyberpunk style that took 1980s and 90s science fiction by storm. It’s also a profoundly moving film about remaining human in a world where everything — including humanity itself — is owned by corporations.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Fact of the Day
Iron Man 3
The movie will be released on May 3rd, 2013
Synopsis:
Synopsis:
Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 3 pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy’s hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?
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