I Love This Shot.

I love this shot.

When you look at sci-fi stories like Star Wars, especially, there's so much more to it than just the technology. It comes back to this idea of "the Force" which I think is based on a lot of Eastern philosophy and religious ideas of "you can either be on the dark side or the light side". It's kind of that Yin and Yang sort of look at energy as a whole. Star Wars has a second meaning to it.

I mean, George Lucas himself even admitted that Star Wars was an allegory for the Vietnam War, especially around Nixon trying to get reelected. He even mentions that democracies aren’t taken, they're given away. Though I also know that he also borrowed significantly from the legends of King Arthur.

I think there's a lot of meaning in sci-fi in general. It's a way to comment on our reality and our current situation through another lens. I think that's the beauty of sci-fi in general. It's also why I think the most recent Star Wars movies got negative reviews, because they were trying to tell Star Wars stories and not real-life stories.

It's a great reflection tool. If Star Wars is about Vietnam, then Dune is about the Middle East. Because Arrakis the planet = Iraq. Spice is the resource, oil is the resource. At the core of it, I think that's the whole point.

Fun Fact:

The Cheshire Cat was first introduced in Lewis Carroll's novel "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". The character was inspired by an old phrase "Smiling like a Cheshire cat". The origins of that phrase are still debated to this day, but the most widely accepted theory is that it refers to a cat living in the English county of Cheshire, which is known for producing a lot of milk and dairy, which cats love, hence the smiling. Carroll decided to personify the cat from that phrase, he gave it a physical form, a personality and magic powers. In the book, the cat doesn't play quite as large a role as he does in the Disney movie, but the two have very similar characteristics. They talk in really confusing ways that are sometimes funny but also kind of annoying, they raise philosophical questions to Alice even though she clearly doesn't understand them and while they sometimes appear to be making a situation worse for her, they're actually rooting for Alice to succeed and even are helping her indirectly.

Dreamchild by Gavin Millar.

Ian Holm is amazing as Lewis Carroll. But like Return to Oz, so are the Lyle Conway/Jim Henson Creature Shop characters.

Check it out, you won't be disappointed.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter (also known as Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter) by André Øvredal.

Based on "The Captain's Log", a chapter from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.

Gorgeous, lavish and vicious!!

Would you take a job as a professional hermit (also known as a garden hermit or ornamental hermit)? Yes, believe it or not, this was a real job in the Victorian era. In 18th and 19th century England, Scotland and Ireland, aristocrats placed ads like this in papers: "Wanted - Ornamental Garden Hermit". The profession required you to become a human ornamental folly on the grounds of a wealthy family estate whilst living in a cave or cottage, turret or hole, contemplating the human condition and enchanting the occasional passerby with your presence at the behest of the landowner. The less like a young English aristocrat you looked, the better. So they were often elderly men with long beards and loose clothes, resembling garden gnomes. Talk about a dream job! Who WOULDN'T want a gig like this? It's the Victorian equivalent of a Walmart greeter.

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore.

A story originally created to serve as a warning of what could possibly arise from the Thatcherite government of the 1980s, V for Vendetta has stood the test of time as one of the premier works of the comic book medium. A story that tells a tale of tyranny and the valiant effort made to thwart it that's as timeless as it is harrowing.