Following on my discussion of ARRIVAL, I updated an article that was published in the Science Fiction Writer’s Bulletin on First Contact. This has been handled wonderfully as in Ray Bradbury’s “It Came from Outer Space” and miserably as in an episode “Star Trek- Enterprise” when Captain Archer, informed that an alien ship was…
Gene Cernan was a classic American Hero: Fighter Pilot, Test Pilot, Astronaut, and the last living human to walk on the moon, which in itself is a sad statement on what we have done with the legacy of the Apollo program. The documentary film, “Last Man on The Moon,” reveals the man behind the legend as…
THE ARRIVAL is one of those SF films that we like to have in the SF community to show off to folks who ask – what the heck is science fiction about anyway?
Hmmn, how to discuss this without generating spoilers? Well I will just have to give it a go. For those of you who do not know her, Maauro is the heroine of her own series of books with MoonDream Press (an imprint of Copper Dog Publishing) that begin with the novel, My Outcast State, continues…
The victorious army, the resolute winner usually suffers far less casualties than the defeated. When Alexander the Great defeated his enemies it was in the rout that followed the battle where the true casualties were incurred. With discipline broken and men not supporting each other, Alexander’s disciplined legions harvested their enemies like wheat. It would…
How much of the Book of 5 Rings can we apply to the modern Dojo of soccer moms, office workers and children? What can we risk in a world of American lawyers and lawsuits? Musashi was in the business; to the extent he trained people, of turning out killers. He lived a life, often devoid…
The question is, does the “Book of Five Rings” have meaning in our modern world, in the martial arts as we practice them, and even in life more generally? It is important in reading the Rings to understand what Musashi has to say to our modern world, and what he does not. As such, it…
Musings on Miayamto Musashi and the Book of Five Rings (Go Rin No Sho) Statue on Ganryu Island depicting the duel between Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro A long time ago in a land far, far away, there lived a very strange and dangerous man. He is known to us as Miyamoto Musashi (also called…
I recently saw the movie Shin Godzilla. http://www.funimationfilms.com/movie/shingodzilla/ (Warning possible spoiler alerts) This was less of a monster movie then an exploration of how a bureaucracy copes with a crisis. For me, interested in all things Japanese, the movie was enjoyable and I found the background fascinating. For those looking for a standard Kaiju movie,…