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Lance Mannion

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A belated Happy Birthday, Cathie, and an early HB to you Neil! Neil, please let us know what you think after you see it. Too bad you didn't get to meet them but at least you saw them! Jealous of that. Did people around Cambridge back then know what they were seeing?

Commented 1 hour ago on Saving P.L. Travers: Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, and the saving grace of stories. A review of Saving Mr. Banks. at Lance Mannion

Saving P.L. Travers: Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, and the saving grace of stories. A review of Saving Mr. Banks.

Emma Thompson as author and creator of Mary Poppins P.L. Travers resists Walt Disney’s (Tom Hanks) attempts to get her to “twinkle” like one of his cartoon characters, in the enjoyable Just-so story about the making of the movie Mary Poppins and the magic of storytelling Saving Mr. Banks. At one point in Saving Mr. Banks, an exasperated Walt Disney, desperately trying to figure out what makes author P.L. Travers tick so he can get an angle on how to finally convince her to sell him the film rights to her novel Mary Poppins, asks her, “Where did Mary Poppins... Continue reading

Posted 3 days ago at Lance Mannion

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Paul Ryan is worried about your immortal soul

Paul Ryan is back at it, worrying about the virtue of people who weren’t born into money, like him, who didn’t marry more of it, like he did, who don’t have a job that’s essentially a sinecure with a guaranteed pension and the promise of well-remunerated second career as a lobbyist, a member of a think tank, or at TV talking head should they lose the sinecure or decide to give it up, like he has. He worries that government programs that would keep them from starving or freezing or from having to live on the street are also keeping... Continue reading

Posted 5 days ago at Lance Mannion

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Ellen’s Oscars

I thought Ellen did a fine job. Kept it light, kept it relaxed. Didn't try too hard. Let the jokes sell themselves. She remembered her real audience wasn't the stars and bigwigs in the hall but people watching on TV. She played to the camera not the room. Movie stars and comedians are trained to pretend the camera isn’t there. Ellen didn’t just look at the camera. She looked into it. She looked at us. Then she made the stars look at us too. That was the brilliance behind the selfie. She had them breaking the fourth wall in an... Continue reading

Posted 7 days ago at Lance Mannion

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Mutaman, you're right! Will this do? Kelly's Heroes are my heroes.

Commented Mar 3, 2014 on The Monuments Men: Kelly’s Heroes meet the Over-the-Hill Gang on the Bridge at Remagen on their way to fight the Battle of the Bulge at Lance Mannion

What to read during tonight's commercial breaks

The gremlins that have taken up apparently permanent residence in our plumbing kept me busy all weekend so I wasn't able to follow through with my ambitions for pre-Oscar blogging. Not that you lose much by that, except one or two of my planned posts might have given you something to while away the time during an interminable acceptance speech or another inexplicable appearance by Cirque de Soliel. But don't worry. I still got you covered. Every year the question gets kicked around Is the Best Picture winner ever really the best picture? I think the consensus is it never... Continue reading

Posted Mar 3, 2014 at Lance Mannion

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What I learned from the Oscars I wish I hadn't

Had a shocking realization during the Academy Awards last night that's going to ruin a lot of movies for me from here on out. If Mrs M and I had a daughter, she'd look like Jennifer Lawrence. Really. She could be Oliver and Ken Mannion's sister. So from now on whenever I see her in a movie, instead of thinking what a great actress she is, I'll be thinking: "Watch your mouth, young lady!" "Stop that, right now!" "Put some clothes on!" Or, worse, I won't actually be thinking these things, I'll be thinking I should be thinking these things,... Continue reading

Posted Mar 3, 2014 at Lance Mannion

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Humans to the rescue: Thor: The Dark World

Though I still haven’t seen most of this year’s Best Picture nominees, I did see a lot of good movies in the last year. I liked 42. I liked The Company You Keep. I liked The Great Gatsby. I liked Despicable Me 2, The Sapphires, Much Ado About Nothing, Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Saving Mister Banks, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. I even liked The Lone Ranger. But know which two movies I liked best? Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World. Not saying either should have been nominated for Best Picture, although Iron Man 3 is... Continue reading

Posted Mar 2, 2014 at Lance Mannion

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The Monuments Men: Kelly’s Heroes meet the Over-the-Hill Gang on the Bridge at Remagen on their way to fight the Battle of the Bulge

George Clooney (center) as art conservator turned soldier Frank Stokes plots strategy with members of his team of artists, architects, and preservationists as they race to save the great works of European art from Nazi theft and the ravages of World War II in the (“loosely”) historical drama The Monuments Men. The Monuments Men looks and feels like George Clooney’s homage to the hokier war movies he and I and everybody else our age watched as kids on TV. Battle of the Bulge. Kelly’s Heroes. Darby’s Rangers. Fireball Forward. The Bridge at Remagen. Come on. Kelly’s Heroes is hokey. I’m... Continue reading

Posted Feb 28, 2014 at Lance Mannion

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Oscar Week in Mannionville…

…and I’m just not ready. I’ve only seen three of the Best Picture nominees. American Hustle. Dallas Buyer’s Club. And Captain Phillips. Gravity I deliberately avoided because 1. there’s no IMAX nearby and it seemed that was one movie that really needed to be seen that way, and 2. it would have scared the willies out of me. Seriously. Nightmares for weeks. I also gave The Wolf of Wall Street the skip because… Well, just because. The others---Philomena, Her, Nebraska, and even 12 Years a Slave---came and went at the local art house one right after the other so fast... Continue reading

Posted Feb 26, 2014 at Lance Mannion

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Raylan’s hat and the secret of our success

Updated below. Tuesday, February 25. You don’t need me to tell you Justified is a Western with cars and cell phones and quicker reloads after eruptions of gunfire. It’s one of the best TV Westerns ever. Better than Deadwood. Almost as good as Lonesome Dove. It’s so good a Western that it’s easy for me to see it in my head as an actual Western with horses and six-shooters and the characters getting around their reliance on cell phones with visits to conveniently located telegraph offices and the introduction of a Cheyenne teenager named Rides Like the Wind. Since Justified... Continue reading

Posted Feb 22, 2014 at Lance Mannion

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Rainbow over gas station with trucks.

I've lived through enough winters that I must have seen rainbows in February before but I don't remember one. On the road to Barnes & Noble, Newburgh, New York. Five-thirty this evening. Friday, February 21, 2014. Continue reading

Posted Feb 21, 2014 at Lance Mannion

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An articulation of monotheism

There was also for Judith---as for many of them---another element to her diligence, though it was one she tended not to dwell on in her adult life: She was Jewish. Her family was not observant in the Orthodox sense of the word---they didn’t keep kosher, didn’t refrain from watching television or handling money on Friday night. But Judaism was important to them. The belonged to a Reform synagogue, went once a month for Shabbat and on many of the (major) holidays. They participated in any food drives the synagogue held and made regular donations to MAZON and to the ADL,... Continue reading

Posted Feb 20, 2014 at Lance Mannion

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Everything IS awesome in The Lego Movie!

Not only that, but Will Arnett makes The Lego Movie a better Batman movie than The Dark Knight Rises was or Batman vs. Superman is likely to be. But still, the important thing is that everything is awesome! Continue reading

Posted Feb 19, 2014 at Lance Mannion

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Selecting memories or How I always knew Ellen Page was gay except, of course, I didn’t

On Valentine’s Day actress Ellen Page came out as a lesbian and my first thought on hearing the news was, Tell me something I don’t know. The thing was, she was telling me something I didn’t know. Or rather she was telling me something I didn’t know I knew until she told me. Then all became clear. And settled in my mind and memory. Of course I always knew. It was obvious. No question. Plain as day. First time I saw her in X-Men: The Last Stand I thought, Why did they make Kitty Pryde gay? Well, I mean, they’re... Continue reading

Posted Feb 18, 2014 at Lance Mannion

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KathyF, Not any idiot. Anybody who falls into Magnusson's clutches. Have you read the story? The point there is the same as the point in Sherlock. Magnusson leaves his victims with no choice but to remain his victims or do something desperate. The only clever thing any of them can do to get out of it is to not have done whatever it is he's blackmailing them over. That's how it is in Sherlock and it's not Holmes' solution that matters---he had a clever plan in the works, but he was missing a key piece of information---it's why he resorts to it.

Commented Feb 17, 2014 on Sherlock: The Elephant in the Room at Lance Mannion

KathyF, which ending? The one at Appledore or the one at the airstrip? Neither one bothered me. The one at Appledore was fundamentally true to Conan Doyle. The one at the airstrip I think was what it was because they didn't know if there was going to be a Season 4 so they came up with something that was both a goodbye and a cliffhanger that could be left unresolved. Plus it allowed them to work in the "blunt instrument"quote. As for the gun, I'll have to go back and check, but aren't they there at Magnusson's invitation. He thinks they're there to make a deal. So there's no search. And isn't it Watson's gun? Magnusson doesn't think Watson's worth his notice.

Commented Feb 17, 2014 on Sherlock: The Elephant in the Room at Lance Mannion

It's spring, doggone it!

Never mind these icicles. Forget the foot and a half of snow on the ground. Just a little while ago, a robin landed in the holly bush and looked in through the window. It's spring, doggone it! The view out our window, just now. Eleven AM. Monday. February 17, 2014. Continue reading

Posted Feb 17, 2014 at Lance Mannion

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Sherlock: The Elephant in the Room

Sherlock Holmes enters his Mind Palace to think his way to surviving an assassin’s bullet in Episode Three of Season Three of Sherlock, His Last Vow. If you don’t mind a spoiler or if you already know, click on the photo for the assassin’s identity and the Big Reveal. Season 3 of Sherlock is out on DVD and available for streaming. Here be spoilers, which if you’ve seen Episode 3, His Last Vow, you know some fussy types might think is a spoiler of a line itself. You don’t have to be as fussy to think the following quote is... Continue reading

Posted Feb 16, 2014 at Lance Mannion

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Harry Potter and His Academic Avatars

I always get a kick out of it when I’m reminded what a fine journalist and nature writer Homer was. There is an island covered with forests, not far from the harbor of the Cyclopes, yet not so near, and upon it the wild goats breed in numberless flocks and are never disturbed by the comings and goings of humans, since hunters never visit to force their way through the thick woods and over the mountain ridges. Nobody grazes flocks there or till the fields, but the land is unsown, unplowed, empty of men, and is just a habitation for... Continue reading

Posted Feb 14, 2014 at Lance Mannion

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Another man of the house

Snow day. Oliver Mannion’s school is closed. A good thing because he has stuff to do. Register to vote. Register for the draft. Well, that’s what you do when you turn eighteen. Yep, as of today this house is home to four legal adults. Happy Birthday, Oliver! Love, Mom, Dad, and Ken! Continue reading

Posted Feb 13, 2014 at Lance Mannion

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Mammals in the extreme

Life-size model of an Indricotherium at the American Museum of Natural History’s Extreme Mammal exhibit, May 2009. Photo courtesy of AMNH. From the needs to be created Department of Lance Loves Science and There’s Still a Part of Him that Wishes He’d Gone Down that Path, Brian Switek writing at Tor: Dinosaurs are great. They dominated the world for over 170 million years, and one line has survived to the present day as birds. But they’re hardly the be-all and end-all of prehistory. In the wake of the mass extinction that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs, prehistoric mammals proliferated into... Continue reading

Posted Feb 12, 2014 at Lance Mannion

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Continue reading

Posted Feb 11, 2014 at Lance Mannion

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What work is and isn’t

Keeping in mind that everything Right Wing demagogues, “pundits”, and shills say is propaganda intended to keep the rubes riled up, angry and afraid with nowhere to turn for relief but to the Republican Party… Also keeping in mind that a lot of it is also contrived to keep the suckers on the hook, the point being to sell them alternatives to what Liberalism is offering them for free---good schools, comfortable retirements (Invest now!), personal safety (Guns!), a secured income (Own your own business! Call now!)… And keeping in mind that to them words have no meaning, they’re just sounds... Continue reading

Posted Feb 10, 2014 at Lance Mannion

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Hard at work or hardly working?

I guess it’s beginning to sink in that the CBO report doesn’t say Obamacare’s going to kill 2 million jobs. It says that in the neighborhood of 2 million people may decide to leave the labor force voluntarily or cut back on hours at work because they won’t need the extra money to pay for health insurance anymore, a very different kettle of fish. In effect, Obamacare isn’t going to eliminate jobs, it’s going to free some up for people looking for work. You would think this news would please conservatives and austerity fetishists in the media who are worried... Continue reading

Posted Feb 8, 2014 at Lance Mannion

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