Today, Anna is meeting Werner Herzog during his visit to Chapman University. Here are five reasons that space nerds and science buffs should be interested in Herzog. In the documentary Lo and Behold, he told Elon Musk that he’d be happy to go on a one-way trip to Mars. Musk would prefer to offer round-trips. See the story HERE. At the end of Wild Blue Yonder, Herzog says, … Continue reading Werner Herzog
We’re almost with our Star Trek anniversary celebration (and we’re posting our weekly Wednesday post late for only the second time in six years). So far, we’ve looked at our some of our favorite episodes, a frightening monster or two, and a few highlights for some crew members who weren’t always in the spotlight. While the crew of the Enterprise may have been boldly going … Continue reading Star Trek’s Golden Anniversary: Earth Episodes
As soon as you’ve finished reading this week’s post, toddle off to your search engine of choice, and run a simple three keyword search: “Spock Kirk McCoy.” Once you’ve done your search, head of to the images section of your results. A scan of images quickly reveals that an incredible amount of the images have roughly the same positioning: Kirk at the image’s center, Spock … Continue reading Star Trek’s Golden Anniversary: Fave Non-Major Character Episodes
We’re continuing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Trek all month at Lofty Ambitions. In response to last week’s post of 5 fave episodes, it came through loud-and-clear on social media that a number of folks disagreed with Doug’s list—which is absolutely fine. We weren’t arguing that these were the best Star Trek episodes, simply that they were Doug’s childhood favorites. There are many … Continue reading Star Trek’s Golden Anniversary: 5 Fave Monsters
This week the Lofty Duo is celebrating, acknowledging, reveling in the 50th anniversary of Star Trek. What’s now referred to by those in the know as TOS, The Original Series, premiered on American television sets on September 8, 1966. It had already run in Canada, having premiered there on September 6th. A quick search of the online catalog for the Leatherby Libraries, where Doug works, reveals … Continue reading Star Trek’s Golden Anniversary: 5 Faves
1) Actor Patrick Stewart was born on July 13, 1940. 2) He played Captain Jean-Luc Picard on the television show Star Trek: The Next Generation, which ran from 1987 to 1994, and in subsequent films. 3) Picard catch-phrases: Make it so. Engage. Tea. Earl Grey. Hot. 4) Picard words of wisdom: It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a … Continue reading Happy Birthday, Patrick Stewart
Longtime readers of Lofty Ambitions know what tremendous fans we are of the seemingly random connections of things that push their way into our lives to give us delight in the form of serendipity Over the weekend, we were co-editing a piece of writing that mentioned our parents’ exposure to duck-and-cover drills as schoolchildren. This prompted a question of when that famous film that featured … Continue reading Countdown to The Cold War (sort of, with serendipity)
Earlier this summer, we posted about seeing the film Jaws for its nationwide 40th-anniversary screening. One of the most memorable scenes in that film is when the three main characters—Brody, Hooper, and Quint—are sitting around on the boat drinking. Quint, the weathered captain, talks of his experience years earlier aboard the USS Indianapolis. He says: We was comin’ back from the island of Tinian to … Continue reading Countdown to The Cold War: Jaws and the Atomic Bomb
We spent almost three weeks at Dorland Mountain Arts Colony to write. We had some bumps in our residency road this time, but we always accomplish things and do good work in the isolation and beauty of Dorland. (For other posts about writing retreats, click HERE.) Each residency we’ve done is somewhat different, even when we return to this place. But, when we think about … Continue reading The Writing Residency: More Dorland
Forty years ago, Jaws hit the theaters. The opening weekend box figure was more than $7 million, which almost covered the film’s estimated budget of $8 million. By the Independence Day weekend in 1975, just a few weeks after its launch, Jaws was holding steady at the box office. It would go on to gross more than $470 million worldwide. Forty years ago, Anna saw … Continue reading Jaws! (and Airport 1975)
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