Tom Hanks and Lost Clothing

Tom Hanks is one of my favorite actors ever.  He’s a fantastic actor and a great human being. The beauty of a place like Twitter is the ability to see our favorite celebrities as themselves. We get to see their humanity, and the things the enjoy… for FREE!  I mean, it sure beats paying money…

“La La Land” : Glamour! Nostalgia! Artifice!

La La Land has the distinction of sharing the record for the most Academy Award nominations, fourteen, with Titanic. La La Land swept up at the Golden Globes this year. La La Land is the current favorite to win at this year’s ceremonies as well because of all the other acclaim its swept up. While…

History and its “Hidden Figures”

Hidden Figures is a film dealing with the accomplishments of intelligent women of color and their work with the early days of NASA during a critical era during the struggle for Civil Rights. The title itself has two meanings: one is a reference to the math necessary to successfully launch a manned satellite, the other…

What Does “Hacksaw Ridge” Offer?

My ex-wife went through a period during our marriage where she was obsessed with movies about World War II. She always has and still does love war movies, but for a period of several months we must have watched every single movie about World War II that existed, and there are a lot. There were…

Editha – Or How a Century-Old Story Informs Our Times

We live in interesting times… Or so it would seem. In the United States, we have a president that it seems more than half the country hates, this president seems bent on attacking the press, protests erupt across the country on an almost daily basis, people are terrified of the future, the entire political and…

“Arrival” – Actually a Deep Space Nine Episode

Arrival is the Oscar-nominated science fiction film from director Denis Villeneuve (2013’s Prisoners) starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. It’s a fine, fine movie with excellent performances, a compelling story, and its own unique feel. The story is about a linguist (Adams) who works to develop communication between Earth and an alien race. However, as…

Will “Moonlight” Win Best Picture?

A few months ago, as the “Oscar season” of quality films vying for awards hit theaters at the end of the year, I saw a few brief tweets praising the film Moonlight. Among those was one praising the film for ‘giving a voice to queer people of color.” From that description I knew the film…

Our Monsters Are Due

There is an episode of The Twilight Zone which is worth a fresh viewing for its prescient application to today’s social climate: “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.”  Written by Rod Serling, and broadcast in 1960, the episode begins with the following narration: Maple Street, U.S.A. Late summer. A tree-lined little world of front…

“Mudd’s Women” and a Brief Look at Gender in “Star Trek”

  Gene Roddenberry created the wonderful world of Star Trek which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary.  The late Roddenberry remains seen as a beloved visionary who created a progressive idea of a future with no racism, no poverty, and no war.  That world was better fleshed out and given greater ideological dimensions through other writers,…

“Hence” : How the Media is Destroying Higher Education

Tiffany Martinez, a 21-year-old college senior at Suffolk University in Boston, MA, submitted a sociological research paper for a senior seminar paper.  The professor later returned the paper to her with no grade and a strong accusation of plagiarism.  Martinez denied any plagiarism and filed a complaint with her university’s sociology department.  However, Martinez also…