Last night I attended a lecture by Brian Greene, the author of An Elegant Universe and the host of the PBS special of the same name.
Without going into too much detail (not that there was much detail presented) it was about super string theory and current attempts to rectify the problems with relativity and quantum mechanics. A good chunk of the audience were students there because their teacher told them to show up, a small chunk were professors, and the rest were like me.
I got a whole slew of DVDs this week. Something I haven’t done in a while. Now that I have DVD drive on my PC, I’m able to watch films while doing other things. Today I watched “The Great Ziegfeld”, “Mutiny On The Bounty”, and “Mrs. Miniver”. All of which were Oscar winners for best picture (1937, 1936, and 1943 respectively)
“The Great Ziegfeld” really wasn’t that great. It was a three hour movie with a bunch of big song/dance production numbers, which back in the day I’m sure was a big deal. “Mutiny on the Bounty” was actually pretty good. Charles Laughton was great as Capt. Bligh and should have won the best actor oscar over Clark Gable. “Mrs Miniver” was very suprising. Its a movie you never hear about and has never reached the status of a great, classic movie. The movie is obvious wartime propaganda, but its good propaganda. The movie was very pedesterian, except for two really good scenes: the miracle at Dunkirk and the night of the bombing raid.
I have a few other Oscar winners I want to get through this weekend. “Schindlers List”-1993 (no, I’ve never seen it and it just came out on DVD), “You Can’t Take It With You”-1938, and “Grand Hotel”-1932. That should only leave me with a few Oscar winners which I haven’t seen.
One reply on “The Friday File”
Umm…I have propriety control over the phrase, “Friday File.” I don’t think you can make fun of me and then use it yourself…chump. At the very least, I get royalties off the usages. Consider this a cease and desist letter!