Friday, June 12, 2015

Friday mélange: Spaceship York, Love & Mercy, and a black butterfly

An assortment of news, updates and quick thoughts on this Friday morning...


Encourage good movies: We pretty much get the movies that we deserve, which is why most multiplexes are filled with Jurassic World, Spy, San Andreas1, Tomorrowland, Entourage and their brethren at the moment.

But there are high-quality movies out there, even in the summer, and they need our support if we want more of them in the future. Love & Mercy, the story of Beach Boy Brian Wilson, is, by most reviews, one of those movies. (And it has a gorgeous poster, to boot.) A.O. Scott of The New York Times provides just one of the ebullient reviews, explaining why this isn't your standard music biopic.

Here's the movie's trailer...



And, yes, they had me at "God Only Knows," which Sir Paul McCartney has called his favorite song. Here, by the way, are two cover versions you might like...





But I digress. If you're at all interested in the subject matter, go see Bill Pohlad's Love & Mercy. So we can get more smart movies like it.

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In early May, I wrote about "Spaceship York," an community art project sending hopes, dreams and ephemera into outer space. Last week, the project culminated with its launch, which was termed "awesome" and "amazing" by spectators. Here's the video, from the York Daily Record/Sunday News...



* * *

Last week I received a wonderful postcard and Writing Challenge through Postcrossing. Esther from the Netherlands mailed me a postcard featuring a South American black/grey butterfly called Asterope optima. Her note stated:
"What if this beautiful butterfly would be a dark wizard or bad witch? I saw the postcard and thought of a new fairytale about a mysterious butterfly luring people deeper and deeper into the woods. Maybe you can write about it on your blog."
Challenge accepted! I'm working on a fairy tale2 about the black butterfly and will post it here when it's finished. Here's hoping I can channel my inner Ruth Manning-Sanders.


Footnotes
1. Full disclosure: Ashar and I saw and enjoyed this throwback to Irwin Allen disaster movies. I mean, who's going to say no to The Rock? But the main point about also supporting quality movies still stands.
2. Ashar is serving as a creative consultant.

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