Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Evelyn C. Leeper" Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.fandom Subject: MT VOID, 08/30/24 -- Vol. 43, No. 9, Whole Number 2343 Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2024 11:02:14 -0400 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 289 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Sun, 01 Sep 2024 17:02:15 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="a4dd7d5eb3044c37ca639fa538957271"; logging-data="1619269"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19zBuBvuyDoOPfQks3PfCab" User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Cancel-Lock: sha1:JXONZrxaBy60KMdpjblLsfrGG84= Content-Language: en-US Bytes: 11845 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 All material is the opinion of the author and is copyrighted by the author unless otherwise noted. All comments sent or posted will be assumed authorized for inclusion unless otherwise noted. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send mail to eleeper@optonline.net The latest issue is at . An index with links to the issues of the MT VOID since 1986 is at . 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 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 ========== REMAINDER OF ARTICLE TRUNCATED ==========