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Subject: MT VOID, 08/30/24 -- Vol. 43, No. 9, Whole Number 2343
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THE MT VOID
08/30/24 -- Vol. 43, No. 9, Whole Number 2343

Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
Sending Address: evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
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The latest issue is at <http://www.leepers.us/mtvoid/latest.htm>.
An index with links to the issues of the MT VOID since 1986 is at
<http://leepers.us/mtvoid/back_issues.htm>.

Topics:
         Middletown (NJ) Science Fiction Discussion Group
         Mark's Picks for Turner Classic Movies in September
                 (comments by Mark R. Leeper and Evelyn C. Leeper)
         Mayoral Candidate Vows to Let an AI Bot Run Wyoming’s
                 Capital City
         Tarzan (letters of comment by Gary McGath and Mike
                Van Pelt)
         This Week's Reading (THE ROAD TO ROSWELL, THE MARTIAN)
                 (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

===================================================================

TOPIC: Middletown (NJ) Science Fiction Discussion Group

September 5: THE HUNGER GAMES (2012) & novel by Susan Collins
       (Book 1)
October 10 (not October 3): TBA
November 7: Halloween Horror fest: THE METAMORPHOSIS & novella
       by Franz Kafka
December 5: Xmas double feature TBA

===================================================================

TOPIC: Mark's Picks for Turner Classic Movies in September
(comments by Mark R. Leeper and Evelyn C. Leeper)

We have two recommendations this month.

7 FACES OF DR. LAO (1964) is based on the 1935 book THE CIRCUS OF
DR. LAO by Charles G. Finney.  The book won the National Book
Award for Most Original Book; the film adaptation by Charles
Beaumont does depart from the book in many ways, but it still a
very good film.  The film was produced by long-time stop-motion
animator George Pal and uses stop-motion animation to depict the
mythical creatures of the story.  Tony Randall plays all "7
faces".  All in all, a true sui generis delight.  (And read the
book, if possible with the original Boris Artzybasheff
illustrations.  And be sure to read the catalog of figures, animal
vegetable, and mineral, at the end.)

BIGGER THAN LIFE (1956) is at the opposite end of the spectrum of
the fantastic.  While THE 7 FACES OF DR. LAO is a Western
comedy-fantasy with truly fantastical beings, BIGGER THAN LIFE is
a film "ripped from tomorrow's headlines"--actually, from a fact
article by Berton Rouche titled "Ten Feet Tall" which appeared in
the New Yorker.  In the film James Mason plays a man whose use
(and eventual mis-use) of cortisone for pain relief starts to
affect his mental state in truly frightening ways.  The film has
been praised for its look at then-current attitudes toward mental
illness and addiction.  In 1963, Jean-Luc Godard named it one of
the ten greatest American sound films.  [-mrl/ecl]

[7 FACES OF DR. LAO, Monday, September 9, 8:00AM]
[BIGGER THAN LIFE, Tuesday, September 3, 8:00PM]

And of course, there's the complete set of Val Lewton's nine
horror films, plus the documentary "Val Lewton: The Man in the
Shadows", on Friday the 13th.

[-mrl/ecl]

Other films of interest include:

SATURDAY,  September 7
10:07 AM    Tarzan and the Mermaids (1948)

THURSDAY,  September 12
8:00 PM    2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

FRIDAY,  September 13
12:45 AM    Logan's Run (1975)
3:00 AM    Demon Seed (1977)
4:45 AM    Brainstorm (1983)
6:45 AM    The Seventh Victim (1943)
8:00 AM    Cat People (1942)
9:15 AM    The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
10:30 AM    Bedlam (1946)
12:00 PM    Isle of the Dead (1945)
1:15 PM    The Ghost Ship (1943)
2:30 PM    I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
3:45 PM    The Leopard Man (1943)
5:00 PM    The Body Snatcher (1945)
6:30 PM    Martin Scorsese Presents, Val Lewton: The Man
            in the Shadows (2007)

SATURDAY,  September 14
10:08 AM    Tarzan's New York Adventure (1942)

SUNDAY,  September 15
6:00 AM    Cabin in the Sky (1943)
11:30 AM    Oliver Twist (1948)

MONDAY,  September 16
8:00 PM    To Have and Have Not (1944)
10:00 PM    The Big Sleep (1946)

TUESDAY,  September 17
12:00 AM    Dark Passage (1947)
2:00 AM    Key Largo (1948)
4:00 AM    Bacall on Bogart (1988)

WEDNESDAY,  September 18
12:00 AM    Jungle Book (1942)
10:45 AM    The Enchanted Cottage (1945)
12:30 PM    The Woman in White (1948)

THURSDAY,  September 19
9:00 AM    Tarzan's Savage Fury (1952)
10:00 PM    Modern Times (1936)

FRIDAY,  September 20
1:15 AM    Metropolis (1926)
4:00 AM    Westworld (1973)

SATURDAY,  September 21
10:07 AM    Tarzan's Desert Mystery (1943)
4:00 PM    Soylent Green (1973)

SUNDAY,  September 22
8:00 PM    The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976)

MONDAY,  September 23
6:00 AM    A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)

TUESDAY,  September 24
2:15 PM    The Seventh Victim (1943)
8:00 PM    The Milagro Beanfield War (1988)

WEDNESDAY,  September 25
10:15 AM    Them! (1954)

THURSDAY,  September 26
1:30 AM    What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

SATURDAY,  September 28
10:08 AM    Tarzan's Revenge (1938)

MONDAY,  September 30
12:15 AM    The Enchanted Cottage (1924)

===================================================================

TOPIC: Mayoral Candidate Vows to Let an AI Bot Run Wyoming's
Capital City

<https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/08/19/
artificial-intelligence-mayor-cheyenne-vic/>

<https://wapo.st/3yNaHk2>

Mayoral candidate vows to let VIC, an AI bot, run Wyoming's
capital city

Mayoral candidate Victor Miller, a bespectacled librarian with an
AI obsession, stood between an American flag and a Wyoming flag,
preaching what he sees as the untapped potential of artificial
intelligence in government.

AI would be objective.  It wouldn't make mistakes.  It would read
hundreds of pages of municipal minutiae quickly and understand
them.  It would, he said, be good for democracy.

Miller made this pitch at a county library in Wyoming's capital on
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