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Just commenting on things that interest me

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How many syllables are there in the word “medicine”?

October 4, 2015 / / 0 Comments

I heard a number of people on RTE radio recently (including Marion Finucane and a guest) pronounce the word “medicine” as if it had 2 syllables: med-sin.

For me, the word has always had 3 syllables: meh-de-sin.

Interestingly “Cambridge Dictionaries Online” allows you to hear the UK and US pronunciations and apparently the 2 syllable version is UK and the 3 syllable version is US.

Interestingly also, the two languages agree that the word “medicinal” has 4 syllables, i.e. both are based on the 3 syllable version of “medicine”. So there is no word pronounced med-sin-al. I’m sure a linguist would find lots of examples to show that my reasoning is invalid, but, to my way of thinking, this undermines the validity of the 2 syllable version.

Predestination

October 4, 2015 / / 0 Comments

I mentioned time travel movies in a recent post and I can’t leave the subject without mentioning the move Predestination which I watched recently.

The movie stars Ethan Hawke as a time travelling “Temporal Agent”. Apparently the story is based on Robert A. Heinlein’s story “All You Zombies”.

The movie scores 7.4 on IMDB and some of the reviews are very enthusiastic.

I didn’t enjoy the movie. I don’t know what happened in Heinlein’s story, but for me this is the movie someone made who wanted to construct a set of circumstances involving time travel and sex change so that somebody could give birth to himself/herself. An interesting idea, but not a good basis for a full movie IMHO. And some of the things which needed to take place to make this possible were just too ridiculous, I’m afraid.

predestination

Song of the Summer

October 4, 2015 / / 0 Comments

The song of the summer for me was “Madre Tierra (Oye)” by Chayanne.

The only reason I came across this song was because they played it all the time when we were on holidays in Spain. The “animation” team had a set of dance moves to go along with it which the adults and kids could do along with them.

We bought the CD and we (well especially me) have been listening to it a lot over the past few days.

You can see and hear the song here:

Terminator Genisys – What Went Wrong

October 3, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Here are the stats according to IMDB:

  • The Terminator – 1984 – 8.1
  • Terminator 2: Judgement Day – 1991 – 8.5
  • Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines – 2003 – 6.4
  • Terminator Salvation – 2009 – 6.7
  • Terminator Genisys – 2015 – 6.8

I have read some reviews which blame:

  • The fact that the story (particularly the time travel elements) makes no sense
  • Some claim that Jai Courtney lacks charisma

For me the problem is the choice of the terminator.

The step up in the terminator between T1 (the T-800) and T2 (the T-1000) was obvious. That made perfect sense. Then they seemed to struggle to know how to step things up for T3.

I saw an interview with Arnie at the time of T3 and he was praising the idea that the terminator would be a woman! What a ridiculous idea! Even the name T-X is stupid.

I don’t remember much about T4 – a bit of an indictment in itself! So I don’t really know what the premise was.

But in the new movie they decided that the terminator would be John Connor. Not a terminator who looks like John Connor, but John Connor himself. The problem with that is that it’s an obnoxious idea. I hated it. My 10 year old son hated it.

They say in the Hollywood Reporter that the movies poor performance at the box-office may have killed plans for 2 more movies. I think that is probably for the best. They seem to have no idea how to move things forward from the first two movies.

Having said that, I just read on IMDB that the rights to the terminator series revert to James Cameron in 2019. So maybe there is still some hope.

Here ‘s a picture of Emilia (one of the Sarah Connors) and Arnie (one of the T-800s). Ain’t time travel (and sequels) confusing!

TERMINATOR GENISYS

Simon Pegg is writing the next Star Trek movie

September 25, 2015 / / 0 Comments

I mentioned in my last post how lucky Simon Pegg is to be involved in both Star Trek AND Star Wars.

And then I learned that he is co-writing the next instalment!

Is there no end to his man’s abilities!

Simon Pegg

Simon Pegg – luckiest man in cinema

August 30, 2015 / / 0 Comments

In my last post, I talked about “Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation”. In this post I want to mention two other men from that movie, whom I regard as the luckiest men in cinema.

As well as being in the M:I series, Jeremy Renner is also in Marvel movies (the two Avengers movies to date and the upcoming Captain America movie) and he even starred in a Bourne movie (which, strangely, I haven’t seen yet!)

Even luckier is Simon Pegg. I have liked Pegg for a long time. I have “Spaced” on DVD and I enjoyed movies like “Run Fatboy Run”. As well as M:I, Pegg is involved in Star Trek and now Star Wars!! So Simon Pegg is the man who has united the (supposedly conflicting) worlds of Star Trek and Star Wars!

There’s a promo video out now which has him saying: “My whole life has lead to this. I’m in heaven” and “It’s Star Wars. I’d burn for Star Wars”.

Luckiest man in the world: I think so. Here’s a picture of him on the set of Star Wars:

Star-Wars-Force-Awakens-Simon-Pegg

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

August 30, 2015 / / 0 Comments

I went to see “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” in the cinema the other day. Really enjoyed it. Tom Cruise really seems to be trying to ramp up the action in each movie of the series and that really suits me! The movie is scoring 7.8 in IMDB as I wrote and 93% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Rebecca Ferguson seems to have come out of nowhere but she does a really great job in the movie as the somewhat enigmatic Isla Faust.

Cruise seems to have become the consummate professional: even if you don’t like some of his movies (I’m thinking of Oblivion as a recent example) you have to admire the obvious effort that is put into all aspects of the production.

And, as if that wasn’t enough, he does his own stunts! Here is a short video on the making of the scene where he hangs off the side of a plane as it takes off:

Easy love by Sigala

August 30, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Following on from my last post about “Uptown Funk”, I heard another great fun song the other day, also heavily influenced by sounds from the past: “Easy Love” by Sigala. The song has strong overtones/undertones (samples) of “ABC” by The Jackson 5.

Here’s a great video featuring dozens of dance scenes from moves (and also The Jackson 5 from back in the day!)

Uptown Funk

August 30, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Uptown Funk is a fabulous song. I guess people have got a little sick of it because it has been overplayed – but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s a great song.

One of the reasons I like it is pretty obvious: when I first heard it I couldn’t believe that Prince wasn’t involved.

Overall it sounds like a Prince song. And it’s hard to believe that the guitar piece that starts at 3:12 isn’t Prince!

Other people hear overtones of other songs/artists. Some people hear The Time.

Mark Ronson himself admits that the song “animates a Minneapolis groove”.

And apparently the members of The Gap Band have been given song-writing credit because of similarities to “Oops! Upside Your Head”.

Ronson is pretty upfront about his attitude to sampling. He even gave a TED talk about it.

In any event, here is the song for you to enjoy:

Seafield House, Donabate

July 10, 2015 / / 0 Comments

I drive around Malahide Estuary on a regular basis and I have long been fascinated by the large house which is visible on the other side of the estuary.

Google Maps reveals that this is “Seafield House”.

Included below is a photo which I took with my phone across the estuary (it is clearer with the naked eye than in this photo). A nicer photo (taken from a much smaller distance) is available here.

SeafieldHouse

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