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Popcorn
Download the audio version.Get my science column weekly as a podcast.***There’s been a lot of attention paid to the movies this past week due to the various awards handed out between old clips of previous awards being handed out that aired on TV Sunday night.Which got me thinking about the food that has become synonymous with the movies: popcorn.Native Americans enjoyed popcorn for millennia before movies came along: bits of popcorn found in a New Mexico cave have been carbon dated to about 4,000 years ago. (Of course, somebody could have been performing a shadow play on the wall of the cave via firelight while people munched, but there’s ...Analyzing Oscar
As I write this, the announcement of nominations for the 80th Academy Awards still lies in the future.Nevertheless, I can make a make a few bold predictions: the actors nominated most likely appeared in dramas from major film distributors, and have either been nominated in the past or appeared in a film starring or directed by previous nominees.Yes, for those of you who think that scientific research is too often focused on the needlessly esoteric, I give you “I’d Like to Thank the Academy, Complementary Productivity, and Social Networks,” a working paper by Nicole Esparza and Gabriel Rossman of the California Center for Population Research at UCLA.As the abstract states, “This paper explores ...The first sentence I wrote…
...well, yesterday, actually, since I'm writing this after midnight (just got back a little while ago from seeing Enchanted; can't wait to take my daughter to see it. I loved it, and judging by all the laughter in the theatre, so did everyone else. It had particular resonance since I'm currently in the middle of a Disney musical myself. The quote of the theme song from Beauty and the Beast playing as background music to a TV soap opera in which a woman was telling a man she couldn't love someone who didn't love himself particularly leaped out at me, for obvious reasons.)Anyway, here's the sentence:Andy King sat in the command chair on the bridge and ...It’s the feel-good movie of Christmas 2007…
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.Try the priest.Why I can’t really be called a Star Wars fan:
I don't hate Star Wars enough.Laurey is now Aunt Eller
This caught my eye, since I just played Jud in Regina Lyric Light Opera's production of Oklahoma!:Oscar-winner Shirley Jones will be featured in the Pittsburgh CLO's upcoming staging of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic Oklahoma!, according to the theatre's website. Oklahoma! runs through July 1st.Jones, who famously played Laurey in the 1955 film version of Oklahoma!, will now play sensible Aunt Eller.Of course, the first I knew of Shirley Jones was as Ma Partridge on The Partridge Family.Laurey becomes Aunt Eller. I'm tempted to write something mystical about the mysterious workings of time, or maybe burst into a chorus of "The Circle of Life," but really, all I'm ...Coming soon to Broadway…
Shrek: The Musical.Ain’t it the truth…
A great quote posted at About Last Night which seems particularly apropos since I'm in the throes of rehearsing Oklahoma! (I'm playing Jud) with Regina Lyric Light Opera:"Modern kids are raised with the understanding that people don't spontaneously burst into song at crucial moments in their lives. And isn't that a horrible thing, to remove such evidence of grace on earth from their belief system? Of course there are people who start tap-dancing at unexpected moments, or improvise a tune while plucking lyrics from the air. They're called children, and if you spend any time with them, you'll witness life as a musical forty times an hour." - Ty Burr, The Best Old Movies for FamiliesLaura, the complete story
I've started writing some entertainment stories for the Regina Leader Post on a freelance basis. My first one ran today, but unfortunately was curtailed rather drastically, so that it ended extremely abruptly.So here's the complete story, as it read in a perfect world where newspapers have unlimited space and brilliant copy is never edited:*****Who is Laura?If you've never asked yourself that question, you've probably never seen Otto Preminger's classic 1944 film starring Gene Tierney, in which a detective investigates the murder of a beautiful young woman, falls in love with her in the process--and then discovers nothing is as it seemed.Next week, Regina's Curtain Razors theatre company reformulates and contemporizes ...A review of the filmed-in-Saskatchewan Tideland
Here's the first review I've seen of Terry Gillam's Tideland, shot in Saskatchewan (as you can see in the photo that accompanies the article, which was clearly taken in the Qu'Appelle Valley). In fact, a great deal of it was shot across the street from the condo we lived in until last October, at the Canada-Saskatchewan Production Studios.Here's the opening paragraph of the review. I'm not entirely sure the reviewer cared for the movie:The newest Terry Gilliam movie is best described as nightmarish. With no particular point, the end of the film evokes relief and embarrassment, as if you have just finished witnessing Gilliam pass an enormous kidney stone. One feels the urge to ...
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Magebane
“Spectacular” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Evil wizards, multi-level conspiracies, hidden kingdoms…Lee Arthur Chane…has done a marvelous job…Magebane is a very entertaining book and well worth the time.” – A.M. Donovan, Night Owl Reviews
I happily recommend Magebane and I’ll certainly give Chane’s next novel a try based on this one.” —Bill Capossere, Fantasy Literature
“…an original and delightful tale of epic fantasy and magic, steampunk science, adventure, tragedy, and love…” – Errant Dreams Reviews
Eight centuries ago, the world changed. A devastating war swept the lands, and the MageLords, who had long ruled by virtue of their spell powers, were driven to a distant place, separated from those they had ruled by a magical Barrier. With magic banished from the rest of the world, the MageLords became mere legend and people turned to science to improve their lives. But if one man has his way, all that is about to change….
Written as Lee Arthur Chane (the middle names of my older brothers, Jimmy Lee and Dwight Arthur, and myself, Edward Chane Willett).
Marseguro
Winner of the 2009 Prix Aurora Award for Best Long-Form Work in English
Water world Marseguro is home to the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from human DNA. When an unmodified human seeks revenge on a Selkie by activating a distress beacon taken from the remains of the original colony ship, a strikeforce is sent from Earth to eradicate the genetic abomination. Yet Marseguro will not prove as easy to conquer as the Earth force anticipates…
Terra Insegura
Finalist for the 2010 Prix Aurora Award for Best Novel in English
Marseguro, a water world far from Earth, is home to a colony of humans and the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from modified human DNA. For seventy years the colony has lived in peace. Then Earth discovers Marseguro, and a strike force is sent to eradicate this “abomination.” But Marseguro has created a genetically tailored plague to use against Earth’s Holy Warriors. With the enemy defeated, the people of Marseguro feel they are safe. But Chris Keating, the traitor who signaled Marseguro’s location to the Holy Warriors, has fled to Earth, unknowingly carrying the deadly plague within him. The people of Marseguro feel they must send a ship to Earth with a life-saving vaccine. Only time will tell what awaits them when they reach their destination.
Lost in Translation
Kathryn was a human empath whose world and life had been destroyed when the alien S’sinn slaughtered her parents before her very eyes. Jarrikk was a young S’sinn, an unproven warrior who’d seen his flight mates slaughtered by the humans who’d sought to colonize his world.
As humans and S’sinn found themselves on the brink of war, these two Translators had to work together to find a common ground and avert catastrophe. But whether their Translators’ oath and training could overcome the enemies leagued against them was very much in doubt…
Archives
Song of the Sword
My new YA fantasy novel from Lobster Press
Before the Lady called her, Ariane’s life was a mess. Two years ago, her mother disappeared. She bounced around different foster homes until her aunt finally took her in. The meanest clique at her new high school has decided to make Ariane their prime target. And to top it all off, she is having frightening premonitions, and they are becoming more intense. The moment water touches her skin, she sees visions of a lake, a lady, and a sword. When a staircase opens up in the middle of Wascana Lake and the water begins singing to her, she has no choice but to answer the call….
Historic Walks of Regina and Moose Jaw
Ten walks to points of historic and architectural interest in the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw (eight walks for Regina, two for Moose Jaw).
Johnny Cash: The Man in Black
When country music legend Johnny Cash took the stage at Folsom State Prison in 1968, he solidified the public’s perception of him as a rebel who followed his own path. Born in Arkansas during the Great Depression, Cash endured poverty, the death of his older brother, and a difficult relationship with his father. He turned to gospel and country music to express the pain, and after many years of struggling, his songs of hardship and hope would finally reach the ears of those waiting for an artist who represented them, ordinary people fighting to survive.
Andy Warhol: Everyone Will Be Famous for 15 Minutes
“Paintings are too hard. Machines have less problems…” In the 1960s, Andy Warhol became the most famous creator of a new style of art called pop art, which transformed mass-produced items of popular culture into fine works of art. From Campbell’s Soup cans to photographs of Marilyn Monroe, Warhol’s willingness to use anything and everything from the mass media in his work expanded the range of subject matter available to artists. His avant-garde films, artistic usage of American icons, and unconventional social life made him a controversial figure, both greatly admired and deeply reviled. A trendsetter rather than a trend-follower, a dispassionate observer of both the seamy and celebrity sides of life, Warhol was a true American rebel.
Disease-Hunting Scientist
The true stories of six real disease hunters. Epidemiologists travel the world trying to keep us safe from deadly diseases—from high-tech labs in Canada to remote villages in Africa. Learn how these “disease detectives” are coming up with new ways to fight disease, and find out if you have what it takes to become an epidemiologist, too!
The Bounty Mutiny
The Bounty was a British ship visiting Tahiti in 1789 when some of the crew overthrew the captain, William Bligh, and set him adrift in a tiny boat with sailors loyal to him. The mutiny resulted in a number of trials–both of the men who mutinied and of Bligh for losing command of his ship. These fascinating events have been the source for numerous Hollywood movies, most recently The Bounty. The Bounty Mutiny: From the Court Case to the Movie explores the famous case and the movies it inspired.
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