Redwood Forest
Redwood Forest. Standing with the Giants.
In California is the Big Basin Redwoods State Park.
My son poses with the Giants.
Manhattanhenge
On May 29th I trekked into New York City for “Manhattanhenge”. A twice year event first commented on by Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson comparing it to Stonehenge. I had emailed Dr. Tyson (7-14-07) when I spotted his photo on the Astronomy photo of the day page (NASA website) and he told me where he took it. So I headed to that spot and was surrounded by people. Since Dr. Tyson first mentioned Manhattanhenge all those years ago, it has become a New York event with crowds gathering and standing in the middle of the road. (Guess they forgot people get run over in the city.) As you know, the day started out beautiful. Not a cloud in the sky. Then at 7:30PM I spotted a wisp of a cloud and, after standing for 3 hours (you can’t leave your spot), I felt the “uh-oh” moment. Sure enough, the sun was blocked. So I present my “Sun Hiding Behind the Clouds Manhattanhenge”.
Read my Books for FREE
Today and tomorrow – May 25th and May 26th – my books are a FREE DOWNLOAD on Amazon. Use the free Kindle app – which you download HERE – to read them.
My first book is (there are no) Answers to the Mysteries is a humor book.
“While on an archeological expedition in Egypt, Dr. Salmon discovered the ancient tomb of King Itacher, the only King never preserved as a mummy but was instead ‘freeze-dried’. Instructions written on the side of the sarcophagus declared that with the addition of 5 gallons of water, King Itacher would come back to life.”
(there are no) Answers to the Mysteries” explores a variety of phenomena – Ghosts, UFOs, Bigfoot, the Bermuda Triangle, Life after Death, Reincarnation and Atlantis the Lost Continent. Are Aliens visiting us? Is Reincarnation real? Where is Atlantis today? Is Bigfoot alive and well?
The riveting narrative contains interviews with ghosts and scientists, farmers and college professors, people who have had contact with Bigfoot and the reincarnated. There is the story of a man who claims to be a descendent from Atlantis. Other excerpts include passages from the diary of a man who spent the night in a haunted house and another from the diary of a ghost trapped in a prison cell. Many strange stories are told but there are no clear answers.
The title of the book is “Answers to the Mysteries”, but please note the three words in parentheses “there are no”. The search for the answers continues amid the many interesting stories told. Who knows, maybe someday, someone will provide the answers that have eluded all of us.”
My next book is 5 Pumpkins & a Headis light humor combined with some not so scary stuff.
“Nick, a young man in his twenties, works the graveyard shift as a security guard in a factory possessed by an evil demon. As the story unfolds, we watch Nick daydreaming about his former fiancé and struggling to understand the unearthly events that are happening around him. A comedy nightclub suddenly appears in the basement at the warehouse. The ceilings at the factory descend trying to crush him. A worker is encased in a block of ice. The evil that surrounds Nick at work follows wherever he goes.
Sitting in the security office at work, a truck driver asks Nick about his future plans. Nick answers, “I don’t have any.” He feels trapped between his lack of ambition and a factory that wants to kill him.”
My last book is Election Day for President of the United Statesis another humor book.
“This is the story of Harry Keaton – a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. It is Election Day and Harry is the overwhelming favorite to win! What could possibly go wrong? Well, on the day before the election, Harry had a few drinks and does something that could not only cost him the election but also put him behind bars. On Election Day morning he discovers what he has done and, with the help of his campaign manager, his Vice-Presidential running mate, two Secret Service agents and his wife, he attempts to cover up what becomes known as “the incident”. And he only has about 16 hours to succeed.”
Sunset Boulevard
I had the opportunity to see Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard” on the big screen in a movie theater. The movie stars William Holden, Gloria Swanson, written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, D.M. Marshman Jr. and directed by Billy Wilder. For those not familiar with him, 4 of his movies are on the American Film Institute’s 100 Greatest films ever made. They are “Some Like It Hot” (if you haven’t seen it, see it now), “The Apartment”, “Double Indemnity” (great movie) and “Sunset Boulevard”.
I own a copy of the movie on disc, but Turner Classic Movies, in conjunction with Fathom Events, has a Classic Film Series playing in selected theaters. “Sunset” was on the list.
Plot summary from IMDB–
“In Hollywood of the 50’s, the obscure screenplay writer Joe Gillis is not able to sell his work to the studios, is full of debts and is thinking in returning to his hometown to work in an office. While trying to escape from his creditors, he has a flat tire and parks his car in a decadent mansion in Sunset Boulevard. He meets the owner and former silent-movie star Norma Desmond, who lives alone with her butler and driver Max Von Mayerling. Norma is demented and believes she will return to the cinema industry, and is protected and isolated from the world by Max, who was her director and husband in the past and still loves her. Norma proposes Joe to move to the mansion and help her in writing a screenplay for her comeback to the cinema, and the small-time writer becomes her lover and gigolo. When Joe falls in love for the young aspirant writer Betty Schaefer, Norma becomes jealous and completely insane and her madness leads to a tragic end. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil”
Acting in the film as themselves, Buster Keaton, Hedda Hopper, Ceil B. DeMille, H.B.Warner, Anna Q. Nilsson. The great director Erich Von Stroheim plays the butler and driver. Plus a young Jack Webb – “Just the facts, ma’am” – in a small supporting role.
Sunset was nominated for 11 Oscars and won 3. Info here.
Two movies on the TCM list I want to see – one in June – “The Producers”. And in August – “The Big Lewbowski”. I want to see “The Dude”!
