Just finished watching Goldfinger (1964) and A Flash Of Green (1984)...

Now reading Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy...

 

Introducing The Amazing Compact Disc | 1982 | Retro vintage 80s technology

 

When the first compact discs arrived on the Australian market in 1983, they ranged in price from $900-$1800. The price didn’t hold back the rapid adoption of the technology.

North Van's Booklovers helps deliver the big picture

 

https://www.nsnews.com/living/north-vans-booklovers-helps-deliver-the-big-picture-3080525

These books are ready for their close-up.

A charming tidbit about Booklovers in Lower Lonsdale: When owner Dalyce Ayton isn’t stocking her used bookstore on Third Street with a varied cornucopia of tomes, classic magazines, and other memorabilia that harken back to a more tactile, more analog moment, she’s renting them out for guest appearances on the big screen.

“I just think it’s really neat,” Ayton says when asked what it’s like seeing her books sharing screentime in productions like Santa Buddies, The X-Files, or The Good Doctor.

“Sometimes I rent out 100 linear feet – well that’s like 33 three-foot shelves. Smaller bookstores wouldn’t be able to lose that kind of stock, sometimes I rent them for two or three weeks.”

When Ayton purchased the long-standing used bookstore 10 years ago it was the realization of her lifelong dream, she notes.

“I always wanted to own a used bookstore,” she explains, relaying a story about how as a child she visited one to buy magazines to cut up for a school project only to become enamoured with the splendour of seeing walls and walls covered with books, magazines, and literature for all ages.

“I just fell in love with the whole concept of piles of books and all shapes and all sizes and types,” she says. “I just love it, I just thought it was magical.”

Ayton worked as a wholesale buyer in the food industry for more than 30 years before pulling the trigger and realizing her dream with Booklovers.

At almost 2,000 square feet, the store provides ample space for readers to get lost in words as they peruse row after row of Ayton’s tightly organized stock.

“I have a lot right now because of what’s going on on the North Shore with everybody selling and downsizing,” she admits. “A lot of people are getting rid of their books because they don’t have the space in their new place.”

During the past decade, however, Ayton has gotten creative when it comes to managing her high volume of stock and renting or selling books to film or TV productions that need them for certain scenes, either as one-offs or recurring segments.

Things can get especially hectic, she says, during pilot season – when hordes of productions hope to cross the threshold of mere concept into the golden realm of reality: being picked up for syndication.

It’s during this time where it might be common for set decorators to be among the loyal and devoted customers who pay regular visits to Booklovers.

“They phone me and say: ‘I need 10 linear feet. I’m doing a house, I need three feet of children’s books ages six to eight, I need two feet of cookbooks, I need four feet of contemporary novels hardcover, dust jackets on or off,” she explains, adding that productions like the epic fantasy shows The Magicians and Once Upon a Time rank among shows that have tasked her with providing libraries for use on their productions.

Ten years ago, when the keys to Booklovers were first handed over to Ayton, she wasn’t aware that such a seemingly eccentric task could be part of her business. She was in the book business after all – the television and film industry was something else entirely.

But a year into owning and operating the store, a set decorator walked in and asked her to put some books together for a production they were working on.

“I’ve been doing it ever since, I do more and more all the time,” she says.

Ayton stresses, however, that while renting/selling books to the film industry is the gravy to her business, the bread and butter -- the bulk of it – comes from her regular everyday customers, the people who make it all worthwhile.

“You think: ‘Where’s it been? Has it been around the world? Who owned it? Who touched this book?’” she ponders about the books that line her shelves.

Regarding her customers, some of whom grace her store every week, some of whom she’s known for the better part of a generation: “If next year all the shows don’t need books, I’ve got my customers,” she says. “It’s the people. ... The best part is the people, for sure.”

Now listening to Toto IV by Toto and Top Gun by Harold Faltermeyer...

DC's Latest Movie Shake-Up Underscores Kevin Feige's Importance to Marvel

 

https://www.cbr.com/dc-movie-shakeup-kevin-feige-marvel/

The drama at DC Studios and Warner Bros. Discovery highlights just how important Kevin Feige is to Marvel Studios' success before and after Disney.

The tumultuous year for Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Studios continues as the new company tries to get a handle on its superhero universe. Disney is thanking its lucky stars, but not for the reason fans might think. The House of Mouse should be incredibly grateful that Marvel Studios has a leader like Kevin Feige because his job is apparently not at all easy to do.

The rivalry between DC Comics and Marvel Comics throughout the years has been bitter, but theirs is a symbiotic relationship. In fact, Feige's praise of James Gunn shows that he understands that Marvel Studios needs a capable DC Studios. As long as fans are fighting over whether Marvel or DC heroes are cooler, they are not looking elsewhere for their mythic storytelling. Having made three (and a quarter, given his help with the Guardians on Infinity War and Endgame) films with Feige, Gunn has surely learned some of the key tricks of the trade. Still, the tumult continues. The cancelation of marquee films like Wonder Woman 3 and the box office woes of Black Adam just highlight how tough Feige's job is at Marvel. While Marvel Studios suffered its share of tumult as well, there's never been anything like what's happening with the Distinguished Competition.

Kevin Feige's start in movies came not from Marvel but from a DC legend. He worked at the Donner Company, started by Superman director Richard Donner and Lauren Shuler Donner. He worked as an assistant to Shuler Donner, who in 2000 signed on to produce the X-Men films. Due to Feige's encyclopedic knowledge of Marvel Comics, she promoted him to associate producer. Avi Arad, the original 'Kevin Feige' of Marvel, immediately hired him as second in command at Marvel Studios. He would often give script notes to licensed Marvel films at Sony or Fox. Then, he got an idea for a shared universe of movies leading up to an Avengers team-up.

Feige had a front-row seat to the 'superhero fad' almost dying in Hollywood, but the Marvel Studios plan paid off better than anyone ever hoped. Still, there's been problems. Edgar Wright publicly split with Marvel Studios over creative disagreements on Ant-Man in 2014. After it was announced at SDCC 2019, Scott Derrickson and writing partner C. Robert Cargill left Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, ultimately replaced by Sam Raimi and writer Michael Waldron. Feige also had frequent fights with Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Pearlmutter, leading to Disney reorganizing Marvel Studios so that Feige reported directly to once and future CEO Bob Iger. After Endgame, Feige was given creative control over everything Marvel.

Still, despite any behind-the-scenes disagreements or spats with the now-defunct Marvel Television unit, nothing ever rose to the level of press drama Warner Bros. Discovery is currently facing. In fact, even with the critically-mixed reaction to the MCU's Phase Four focused on grief, Marvel Studios is still delivering Disney its biggest box office and streaming wins.

The trouble throughout the WarnerMedia era and this latest iteration of the company show that what Feige and Marvel Studios did is not easy to repeat. Of course, Kevin Feige may be the face of Marvel Studios' brain trust, but he is not the only mind at work on these stories. There's Louis D'Esposito, co-President, and Victoria Alonso, president of physical, post-production, VFX and animation. They're also helped by the "Marvel Studios Parliament."

This group of producers ensures that Marvel Studios' massive production schedule stays on track. These are names familiar to Marvel fans like Brad Winderbaum, Trinh Tran, Jonathan Schwartz, Eric Carroll and Stephen Broussard. Nate Moore is another member of the Parliament who most recently led the press push for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Even though Feige is the Chief Creative Officer for all of Marvel, he's not the only one making moves and decisions. The decisions are Feige's, ultimately, though to hear any Marvel Studios creatives tell it, Feige always seems to err on the "most creative" choice.

Perhaps Kevin Feige's biggest superpower is trust. Not the trust he has in the storytellers, which is considerable. Rather, it's that Disney seems to trust his lead, if only because he's never once disappointed. It's a luxury that the executive creatives never seem to have at Warners.

On Cambie Street in Vancouver. Autumn of 2018.

Cambie Street is a street in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is named for Henry John Cambie, chief surveyor of the Canadian Pacific Railway's western division (as is Cambie Road, a major thoroughfare in nearby Richmond).

There are two distinct sections of the street. North of False Creek, the street runs on a northeast-southwest alignment (following the rotated street grid within Downtown Vancouver). As such, the street direction is approximately 45 degrees to that of the Cambie Bridge, and there is no seamless connection between the two. Instead, Nelson Street carries southbound traffic onto the bridge, and Smithe Street carries northbound traffic away from the bridge. The downtown section of Cambie Street runs from Water Street in Gastown in the north to Pacific Boulevard in Yaletown in the south and is a two-way street for its length.

South of False Creek, the street is a major six-lane arterial road, and runs as a two-way north-south thoroughfare according to the street grid for the rest of Vancouver. This section of the street was originally named Bridge Street, and was first connected to Cambie Street after the first Cambie Bridge opened in 1891; it was renamed Cambie Street after the second Cambie Bridge opened in 1912.

Between King Edward Avenue West and Southwest Marine Drive, the street has a 10 metre wide boulevard with grass and many well established trees on it; the boulevard was designated as a heritage landscape by the city of Vancouver in 1993.

When proposals to build SkyTrain's Canada Line (formerly known as the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver or RAV Line) along Cambie Street first emerged, they were heavily protested by residents and business owners who wanted to keep the street as a heritage boulevard. They argued in favour of using the existing Arbutus Street rail corridor instead.

Once the decision was made to use the Cambie alignment for the Canada Line anyway, residents along the corridor successfully persuaded authorities to put the rail line in a tunnel instead of running it as a surface route, and to dig the tunnel using a tunnel boring machine. However, due to cost concerns and time constraints, the winning bidder decided to use a cut-and-cover method to build the tunnel – which required disruption to traffic and business along the corridor during the construction. As such, even though it cost less and was much faster than using a tunnel boring machine, the plan drew heavy criticism from area residents and businesses.

During 2006 to 2009, portions of the street south of False Creek were closed to traffic to allow for construction of the line. The cut-and-cover tunnel runs underneath the east side of the street for most of its route. South of West 63rd Avenue, the line emerges from the tunnel and runs on an elevated structure across the Fraser River.

Gregor Robertson, who later became the mayor of Vancouver, was a strong supporter of Cambie Street merchants and spoke regularly about hardships from the Canada Line construction. He called the handling of the rail line construction an "injustice."

On March 23, 2009, Robertson testified in a lawsuit brought by Cambie Street merchant Susan Heyes, owner of Hazel & Co., in the B.C. Supreme Court regarding damage to her business from the construction, a lawsuit for which she was awarded $600,000 by the B.C. Supreme Court due in part to the fact that there was insufficient action to mitigate the effects of Canada Line construction on Cambie Street merchants. The award for damages was later reversed at the British Columbia Court of Appeal, which determined that while the project had resulted in a legal nuisance to the claimant, the government had acted within its authority and was therefore not liable for damages. Leave for further appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was subsequently denied. On the Canada Line's opening day of August 17, 2009, Robertson said Greater Vancouver needed more rapid transit but the Canada Line was a "great start" and that he was a "Johnny-come-lately" to the project.

 

AVATAR MADE ME HORNY :(

 

If you’ve never seen Avatar then you must be living under a rock, and I ain’t talking floating rocks hunny! In anticipation for its long-awaited sequel, we decided to revisit the highest-grossing movie of all time to see how well it holds up. Zach is back for another theme park-adjacent commentary track. If you’ve never felt an Ikran breathe between your legs at Disney World’s Pandora, then you haven’t lived!

Just finished watching Forced Vengeance (1982) and Lionheart (1990)...

BODYGUARD, THE

https://lalalandrecords.com/bodyguard-the/

La-La Land Records, Sony Music and Warner Bros. proudly present the world premiere release of acclaimed composer Alan Silvestri's (BACK TO THE FUTURE TRILOGY, PREDATOR, ERASER, THE POLAR EXPRESS) original orchestral score to the 1992 blockbuster motion picture THE BODYGUARD, starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, and directed by Mick Jackson. Silvestri's lush, noir-tinged score is one of his very best and what better way to celebrate the film's 20th Anniversary then to give this sumptuous music the deluxe release it has always deserved! Produced by Dan Goldwasser and mastered by James Nelson, this special release is limited to 3500 Units and contains exclusive liner notes by writer Tim Greiving that include new comments from the director and the composer.

Just finished watching Aquanauts (1980) and Predator 2 (1990)...

Aliens - The Deluxe Edition (CD)

https://varesesarabande.com/products/aliens-deluxe-edition

Before Titanic there was one epic collaboration between director James Cameron and composer James Horner. In this action-packed sequel to Ridley Scott's Alien, Sigourney Weaver returns as Ripley, the only survivor from mankind's first encounter with the monstrous Alien. Her account of the Alien and the fate of her crew are received with skepticism – until the mysterious disappearance of colonists on LV-426 lead her to join a team of high-tech colonial marines sent in to investigate. Personally supervised by director Cameron, the Aliens Special Edition DVD restored seventeen minutes of footage and treated the entire film to a high-definition makeover. Aliens has never looked or sounded better! For this Deluxe Edition of James Horner's apocalyptic score we have restored every note the composer wrote for this massive symphonic assault.

Horner's Aliens has always been among his most acclaimed scores and for fans of both the film and the score, we have gone all out. Included are extensions to cues formally only presented in edited form … even in the film! Over a dozen cues appear for the first time ever! The entire score has not only been digitally remastered but fully remixed to optimize its sonic power. This 75-minute CD is the ultimate Aliens companion.

Just finished watching Flatliners (1990) and A View To A Kill (1985)...

Just finished watching Aliens (1986) and Scream (2022)...

Oldest Living Cat - Guinness World Records

Flossie is living out her later years of life in Orpington, UK. She's the equivalent of 140 in human years and is deaf as well as partially sighted.

Resident Evil Zero HD Review - Back To Its Roots!

https://techraptor.net/gaming/reviews/resident-evil-zero-hd-review-back-to-its-roots

Resident Evil Zero HD is the re-release of the 2002 Gamecube release of the same name. It is a prequel to the original Resident Evil, which also got a HD release recently. Since Resident Evil Zero's initial release, it has also been re-released on the Wii under the name Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil Zero. Resident Evil Zero HD is releasing for PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC and is being published and developed by Capcom.

In Resident Evil Zero HD, you follow the story of the S.T.A.R.S Bravo team sent to investigate a series of cannibalistic murders in the Arklay mountains near Raccoon City. Bravo team was sent in prior to the insertion of the Alpha team who are the focus of the original Resident Evil. You get to take control of Rebecca Chambers, a new recruit of Bravo team, and Billy Coen, a soldier on the run from his war crimes. On the way to the mountains, Bravo team finds Billy Coen's prisoner transport flipped and his escorts dead. Then, they stumble upon the Ecliptic Express, a train owned by the Umbrella Corporation which has been attacked. The story of Resident Evil Zero brings you to the origin of everything in the zombie filled universe, and it's a fun story to let yourself get lost in. It's a great experience to take a step back from a lot of the recent "blockbuster" Resident Evil releases like 5 and 6. This game is more about the story and the experience rather than the number of zombie head shots or explosions that occur. Billy's character is fleshed out quite well, but we don't learn much about Rebecca other than her rookie status. Of course, that's a lot more development than we see for any of the rest of Bravo team though. Instead of character development, this tale develops an understanding of the original incident that spawned the Resident Evil series.

Resident Evil Zero has the classic Resident Evil tank controls as well as fixed view camera angles, but luckily these can be changed in the HD release. This primarily means that your character moves in relation to the camera instead of their own body, but this can also lead to issues transitioning from scene to scene where it's sometimes difficult to keep walking in the right direction once the camera changes. Aside from some movement control issues the rest of the controls work well. There are five different presets control schemes from the original to ones that might be more familiar to players of current shooters. Each person might need to spend a bit of time in the menus to figure out which best suits them, but all are quite easy to get a handle on.

The game's item management will pose a challenge, as players have to decide what is worth keeping in each of their character's six slot inventory and what is better left behind. That might seem reasonable at the start of the game, but you quickly realize that this isn't enough space when you have a handgun and ammo taking up a third of your storage. It's worth noting that some of the items from your inventory that you need to interact with can be quite finicky. Keys will automatically be used to unlock doors, but objects like swipe cards need to be selected from your inventory while you're already positioned exactly where the game expects you to be. Just don't be discouraged if an item doesn't work the first time!

The different difficulty levels found in Resident Evil Zero HD have quite a learning curve to them. If you play the game on easy, you can expect it to be about the puzzles more than anything else. You will still have some tough fights, but standing in place and tanking a boss is a totally viable strategy. For the normal mode, you really need to know where you're going, what you're doing, and what you can avoid to conserve ammo. This is the proper Resident Evil mix of tense action, item management, and puzzle solving. The Hard mode is for those who want a good punishment, and you can expect to spend more time running from zombies than engaging.

Once you have completed the main story, you get access to a couple of bonus modes. The first of these, Leech Hunter, returns from the original game. In this mode, you will get full access to the Umbrella Research Center and have to go from room to room killing as many leeches as possible. Based on how many you are able to kill before you die, you will be rewarded with perks for the base game. These rewards can range from unlimited Handgun ammo, to a Magnum in the early game all the way up to unlimited ammo for every weapon. This is a fun way to lengthen the game as you go in trying to beat your previous score. In this mode, zombies also have more health so good luck taking on as many as you can. Wesker Mode is the other bonus mode, and it's new for this release. In this mode, you play through the full story but get to replace Billy with a powered up Wesker from later on in the Resident Evil games. Wesker has the same bonuses as Billy, but you also have a sprint ability that allows you to cross any room in no time. You also have an ocular blast that will deal heavy damage and cause the heads of all zombies in its range to explode. This allows you to run through the story again at a more lighthearted pace with such a powerful character to play as.

For a 13 year old game, this HD remake does Resident Evil Zero wonders. The models and textures have all been sharpened, yet they retain the same feel. This is one of those games where the HD remake looks exactly like you remember the game looking when you used to love playing it on the Gamecube. However, it's easy to see just how much nicer the new version is when you put them side by side. One interesting side effect of sharpening up these assets is the somewhat waxy look that a lot of the characters get. You won't be able to notice it much during gameplay, but it's pretty obvious once you get into a cutscene. This HD remake also formats the game into a 16:9 aspect ratio, but also supports a classic 4:3 ratio for those who prefer it.

The sound design for Resident Evil Zero HD does an incredible job of mixing with the atmosphere of the game. The audio that you will hear primarily as you walk through the game is of various ambient effects like the rain outside the train and mansion. This can add to the sense of eeriness as your game quickly transitions from near silence to the moans of zombies when you enter a room. It also gives the game a sense of realism that all you can hear as you move around is the echoes of your footprints against the floors.

Resident Evil Zero HD takes us back to before the mansion incident of Resident Evil. It not only fills in some holes in the timeline, but also creates a fun experience full of puzzles and tense fights against an undead foe. Whether you've played it in the past or are new to the franchise and want to experience it for the first time, this is a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Now listening to Space Jam by various artists and Vagrant Story by Hitoshi Sakimoto...

Just finished watching Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) and Alien (1979)...

Near Vancouver City Hall in Vancouver. Autumn of 2018.

Vancouver City Hall is home to Vancouver City Council in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Located at 453 West 12th Avenue, the building was ordered by the Vancouver Civic Building Committee, designed by architect Fred Townley and Matheson, and built by Carter, Halls, Aldinger and Company. The building has a 12-storey tower (the point is 98 metres above sea level) with a clock on the top.

The building is served by Broadway–City Hall station on the SkyTrain's Canada Line.

Between 1897 and 1929, the Vancouver City Hall was located on Main Street, just south of the Carnegie Library; that building had previously served as a public market and an auditorium. In 1929, City Hall moved into the Holden Building (built 1911), while the Main Street building became an extension of the Carnegie Library.

After being elected mayor in 1934, Gerry McGeer appointed a three-man committee to select the location for a new city hall; choices included the former Central School site at Victory Square, and Strathcona Park at the corner of Cambie Street and West 12th Avenue (no relation to the current park in the Strathcona neighbourhood). The panel recommended the Strathcona Park site, and City Council approved the selection in 1935, making Vancouver the first major Canadian city to locate its city hall outside its downtown.

Construction of the new City Hall began in 1936 (Vancouver's Golden Jubilee) on January 3, and the first cornerstone was laid by McGeer on July 2. A 2.4-metre (8 ft) statue of Capt. George Vancouver, by Charles Marega, was placed at the front of the building. It was unveiled on August 20 by the visiting Lord Mayor of London, Percy Vincent. Vincent also presented several gifts to the city, including a civic mace, and a sprig "... from a tree in the orchard where a falling apple gave Isaac Newton the idea that led to his theory of gravity". The mace and the statue still reside at city hall.

Construction on the building was begun the same year the opened. Construction cost $1 million, and was completed on December 1, 1936. Each lock plate on the outer doors displays the Vancouver Coat of Arms, and each door knob bears the monogram of the building. The ceiling on the second floor of the rotunda was made of gold leaf from several British Columbia mines.

After winning the civic election on December 9, 1936, George Clark Miller became the first mayor of Vancouver to occupy the then-new city hall, on January 2, 1937.

Construction on a four-storey east wing was begun in 1968 (completed in 1970) and in 2012, city staff gradually started moving out when a study found it would not withstand an earthquake. In 1969, a coat of arms was added, and the original building was declared a Schedule A heritage building in March 1976.