Intellectual Self-Defence: Time For A Reading Sabbatical
To be brief: The obsession with quantity and volume has to end. More is not always better. Quality matters most. But people in the 21st century are addicted to endless…
Culture
Squid Game
The UCP’s “bread and circuses”* approach to government is no longer working. The “bread” (low taxes and high employment) is no compensation for our crumbling healthcare, education, and social services.…
Musings on the Post-Xmas Days
I am glad to have reached the first week in January of 2024 without telling a lot of people to simply fuck off and leave me alone during the past…
Review: The Banshees of Inisherin
I had expected comedy. Maybe not laugh-aloud, rib-splitting stuff. Not slapstick and pratfalls. But humour of the British sort. Oscar-Wilde-ish witty dialogue. Banter like that from Fry and Laurie. Joycean…
Accuracy, Licence, and the Death of Stalin
One of my favourite movies in my collection — seen three times already on DVD or Blu-ray but likely to be seen more — is the 2017 satire, The Death…
Review 9: Son of Godzilla
I‘ve hesitated to write this review because, of all the films in the Godzilla franchise, I dislike the campy-cute, family-friendly Minilla, the so-called “son” of Godzilla. Minilla appears in three…
Cultural Differences of ASD
I was once introduced to a new colleague who made very direct, sustained eye contact, and I thought to myself as I spoke with him: he’s on track to be…
Review 8: Ebirah, Horror of the Deep – 1966
In 1966, the original director of the Godzilla series, Ishiro Honda, left to do other projects and left the next film — Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, aka Godzilla vs…
65: A Catalogue of Disappointments
Can a movie featuring aliens, dinosaurs, spaceships, one of the main actors from Star Wars, and a giant asteroid about to crash into the planet be bad? Sadly, yes. The…
Canada Day
The Soapbox family had a wonderful Canada Day and we hope you did too. We had a celebratory dinner with family and friends. We started with drinks and snacks on…
Lost Counterculture
Henry Madison, just some random dude on twitter, wrote an interesting bit on concerts and the enmeshment of generations. I disagree with several of his claims below: Blondie “Imagine a…
Review 7: Invasion of Astro Monster – 1965
Godzilla films had already begun to move into the cultural camp mode from the second film, Godzilla Raids Again, and away from the monster-threat-to-Earth and Atomic-bomb-symbol of the first film.…
Review 6: Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster – 1964
Toho didn’t waste any time cashing in on the popularity of the latest Godzilla movie, and released two G films in quick succession that same year (the only year to…
Review 5: Mothra vs Godzilla – 1964
Toho was not about to let another seven years slip by without a sequel to a successful Godzilla film, but what to do now? The last two films had all…
Review 4: King Kong vs Godzilla – 1962
What was to prove the most successful of Toho’s Godzilla films is, to me, at times one of the hardest to watch in the edited, Americanized edition, even though it…
Review 3: Godzilla Raids Again – 1955
The unexpected success of the original Gojira film led Toho to find a quick and cheap way to cash in on the popularity. And within six months, they released the…
Review 2: Godzilla, King of the Monsters – 1956
I admit to a nostalgic affection for the American (dubbed) edit of the original Gojira — renamed Godzilla, King of the Monsters — because it was the first film in…
Wildfires and Gordon Lightfoot
“Do the best with what you’ve got.”—Gordon Lightfoot News of Gordon Lightfoot’s death, while not unexpected, still came as a shock. We didn’t think he’d live forever; truth be told…
Review 1: Gojira – 1954
Like most North Americans, my introduction to Godzilla (aka Gojira) came later than the first (original) film. For me, it was the 1956 American edit of this film (Godzilla: King…