Though the current project started as a series of posts charting my grief journey after the death of my mother, I am no longer actively grieving. Now, the blog charts a conversation in living, mainly whatever I want it to be. This is an activity that goes well with the theme of this blog (updated 2018). The Sense of Doubt blog is dedicated to my motto: EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY. I promote questioning everything because just when I think I know something is concrete, I find out that it’s not.
Hey, Mom! The Explanation.
Here's the permanent dedicated link to my first Hey, Mom! post and the explanation of the feature it contains.
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #390 - Affect/Effect - the Oatmeal
Hi Mom,
It's Monday. I kind of took the day off yesterday. Or rather, I was a day behind, so I finished Saturday's post on Sunday, and then did not get a Sunday post done.
So, today, just a quick note and a comic from THE OATMEAL, one of many at the page found via that link.
Liesel and I had kind of a lazy weekend. We finished watching Penny Dreadful, for which I want to write a review, and we watched all eight episodes of the Netflix show Stranger Things, which I also plan to review.
So, that's about it. On to August. But first some other reprints, though with time dilation, because that amuses me. I am adding a link to Warren's text having found the monastery he mentions.
Tomorrow (Monday, August First), Warren Ellis will publish this on his Morning Computer blog:
THE MORNING VOLUME CONTROL
Four cups of espresso, four cigarettes, sitting in my back garden. Under a roof, because it’s England, and we can get hail in the height of summer.
I don’t open Instagram in the morning any more. The new timeline system has fucked it all up for me. (Yes, yes, all-inclusive linear timelines are also an algorithmic choice blah blah nothing is real blah blah time is a flat circle blah blah fuck off.)
News podcasts from BBC Today and The Economist while I struggle to focus my eyes and stare at the garden. Then skimming the top of Twitter, the Guardian, Foreign Policy.
I live in DMs and emails now. (And one tiny Slack channel.) An acquaintance DM’d me yesterday to tell me they were going to “0 followers” on Twitter because the public internet is just freaky and stressy these days.
There’s a podcast sent from a monastery in France, that records each day’s chants, and I often listen to that over the last espresso while I process the overnight email. Most of my days are insane, lately – writing and firing off a hundred emails and processing production material and spending an unusual amount of time on the phone. I protect my mornings to the death, now. I need to start the day slowly, and with the volume turned down. The top of the day can be peaceful, even while assimilating information. You just have to find the ways to turn the volume down on the world.
And then, notebook in one hand and the phone in the other, I go for a walk.
NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #389 - Bladerunner - in ridiculous detail
Hi Mom,
Once again, here we are in our continuing series of things that you don't care about at all, though you pretend to care about to humor me. Though I know you like Harrison Ford, so that helps you hang in there with this content.
So, this entry updates my previous T-shirt entry about Blade Runner with some new content. There's the Boing Boing re-post of a fan's site that examines the film in ridiculous detail. There's new content on the sequel, due out next year, and my original post from T-shirts, over three years ago.
Blade Runner may be my favorite film of all time. It's difficult to select a favorite film, but in terms of films that had an effect on me and my creative process, this film and its amazing soundtrack stand tall at number one. When pressed for a musical selection that I would take to a deserted island, I have always selected the Vangelis music from this movie.
My dreams play to this soundtrack. The whole movie opens up on display in my mind like a dream. The slow pans of the future cityscape. The camera tracking in slowly on the skyline of future Los Angeles. the bursts of flame, the Asian influences and images, the music.
The visuals of this movie and the additional scenes I see in my head have been apart of my creative visions and dreams for years.
Here's an alternate version of the love sequence with a unicorn made by a fan.
BLADE RUNNER - THE SEQUEL
For those who always wondered about Deckard, check this out:
Rumors about the Blade Runner sequel have circulated for many years. There were many false starts and teasers. But finally, the cast is set, the production is underway, and the film is due out on October 6, 2017, the day before your birthday Mom.
In 1982, in a small Quebec town, Canada, Denis Villeneuve (Sicario) went to see Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford and directed by Ridley Scott. Little did he know that the dystopian sci-fi classic — about one man (Ford) tracking down rogue replicants — was going to change his destiny.
“I remember the opening sequence perfectly,” Villeneuve says, adding that he’s seen the movie “thousands of times” and knows it by heart. “That note of music; seeing Los Angeles in 2019; that smog; that darkness. It’s really the movie that gave birth to my desire to become a director.” So the personal stakes were high when he was asked to direct the sequel, which he was apprehensive about even after accepting the job (a moment of pre-production he calls his “terror period”).
But then he had coffee with Hampton Fancher, responsible for turning Philip K. Dick’s 1968’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? into theBlade Runner screenplay. “He told me that Blade Runner was a dream. We just have to dream again and not worry too much about logic. That removed so much pressure and gave me the key to move forward.”
Plot details, written by Fancher and Michael Green, are being closely guarded, but the director confirms to EW that events take place several decades after the original. The setting is once again a future Los Angeles, albeit one that spreads over much of the West Coast. “The climate has gone berserk – the ocean, the rain, the snow is all toxic,” Villeneuve says. The vehicle pictured in this exclusive concept art from the sequel, Villeneuve says, is a kind of snow blower that hovers over the streets and destroys snow. He laughs. “It’s a Canadian wet dream!”
Ryan Gosling costars with Ford, who is back as runner Rick Deckard – ”he’s full of wisdom and good advice,” according to the filmmaker. Ridley Scott serves as an executive producer, while Roger Deakins, who last teamed with Villeneuve on last year’s Sicario, serves as DP. “It’s a great team and spirits are very high,” Villenevue says. “Failure is not an option.”
The Blade Runner sequel, from Alcon Entertainment, is slated to arrive in theaters on Oct. 6, 2017. See another piece of exclusive concept art below.
Ridiculously detailed typographical analysis of Blade Runner
If you love Ridley Scott's sci-fi masterpiece, Blade Runner, the minutia of film, and nerding out over typography, prepare to have your neck bolts blown. Dave Addey runs Typeset in the Future, a website dedicated to the typographic elements found in sci-fi films. He has previously examined the titling, signage, logotypes, text messaging, and visual displays found in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Moon, and Alien. Here, he turns his typographical attentions to Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi classic, Blade Runner.
In 5,000 words and hundreds of screen caps, Dave goes through every scrap of textual content seen in the film. What's equally amazing to the point of the piece-- typographic analysis--is how much you learn about every other aspect of the film. This one narrow skew of the movie reveals so many other angles and tangents. Blade Runner is a film I already know too much about and I still learned so much more and had numerous "ah-ha" moments.
The first time we meet Deckard, he’s sat in the Los Angeles rain, idly reading a newspaper. The headline of this newspaper is FARMING THE OCEANS, THE MOON AND ANTARCTICA, in what looks like Futura Demi:Here’s a close-up shot of that newspaper prop, from an on-set photo
The subtitle reads WORLD WIDE COMPUTER LINKUP PLANNED, in what looks like Optima Bold. While the idea of a World Wide Computer Linkup might seem passé as we approach 2019, it was still very much unusual in 1982 when Blade Runner was released. Indeed, it wasn’t until March 1982 that the US Department of Defense, creators of pre-Internet network ARPANET, declared TCP/IP as the standard for all military computer networking, pretty much kick-starting what we know as the modern-day Internet of 2016.
The Spinner’s landscape-orientation TV shows a display that may be familiar to regular TITF readers:This ENVIRON CTR PURGE display is identical to the one we saw inAlien, just before the Nostromo exploded:As if that wasn’t enough self-plagiarism, Ridley Scott also steals a second display from his earlier sci-fi masterpiece:…which the more observant of you may recognize as Alien’s shuttle disconnect sequence:
Gaff’s Spinner journey also introduces us to a recurring piece of typography from the movie’s backdrop. The Blade Runner production team re-used city background scenery in different configurations throughout the movie, which is why the glowing NUYOK sign seen here……is remarkably similar to the glowing sign for the YUKON hotel seen thirteen minutes later (also known as the temporary home of replicants Leon and Zhora):
There is so much wonderful content here, so many things to tickle a typography and film fan's fancy, I could go on and on. But just go to the siteand see it all for yourself. Just don't expect to get anything else done for the next few hours.
Originally presented as T-shirt #61 on my 365 T-shirts blog.
T-shirt #61: Replicant: "You Blade Runner!"
Those who know me know that Blade Runner is one of my favorite movies of all time, and those who have spent any time with me know that the Vangelis soundtrack ranks as my number one favorite music, too. These people are probably sick to death of listening to the music of Blade Runner as I play it a lot.
So, when this "Replicant" shirt came through the Previews catalogue out of which I order my comic books and assorted merchandise through the great and awesome Fanfare Sports and Entertainment, I ordered one. A "replicant" is the movie name for the beings called androids in the book on which the film is based (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick). The replicants/androids serve only on off-world colonies as slave labor. Many escape to earth to find their creator and a solution to the fixed four-year lifespan. "Blade Runner" is also a term used (again only in the movie) to refer to the bounty hunters that track these androids who have illegally emigrated to earth. I will not repeat the entire plot here. If you don't know the plot, you should watch the movie and read the recaps posted online.
There were many great films from my formative years that would appear on my list of favorites. Over the years, I have seen and loved so many films that I resist making just one list of favorites. I would prefer to make several lists, one for each genre, as I think it's unfair to match great comedies like The Big Chill and When Harry Met Sally against serious dramas, such as Citizen Kane or There Will Be Blood. Certainly, a fantastic film for its time period, like Imitation of Life, must be measured on a different scale from a science fiction genre piece, like The Abyss, or a superhero genre piece, like The Dark Knight. All these films should be rated using separate lists.
But if I was forced to make one list of my top ten favorite films, I would have to put Blade Runner on that list. In fact, I am not sure I can think of a single film that has had a greater effect on me as a writer, a story teller, than Blade Runner. When I calculate the impact of the music on my emotional state and individuality through the years, how many times I have listened to that music, let alone the number of times I have watched the film, read the script, studied the images, read the original book, thought about all of it, Blade Runner has had a greater impact on me as a creative person than any other media product.
I cannot claim that it is the film I have watched more times than any other film. One reason is that I have spent much of my life using films as a teaching tool, especially in media studies classes. Thus, I have seen Fatal Attraction and Pretty Woman as many times as Blade Runner (unfortunately). Also, as a teenager, I binged on visits to the theatre to see Star Wars, which I saw 36 times in its original run and at least a dozen times (and probably more) since then. When Blade Runner came out in 1982, I was in college and very preoccupied, and yet I still managed to see it a half dozen times in the theatre. You have to remember that 1982 was still prior to the truly accessible age of video tape rental or purchase, and so paying admission to see a film in the theatre was really the only way to see it until about 1983-84 when videos began to be sold or rented in small shops, and even so, I didn't own my own VCR until 1986.
I did have the pleasure of teaching Blade Runner along with the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep in several classes in the early years of my teaching career. But eventually, I moved on to films and books that lent themselves better to the course objectives and less to my own personal oeuvre. But I had a lot of fun with the subject matter as a teacher. Back when Blade Runner first came out, I studied all related materials. There were books of art work, a partial book, and both books and magazines devoted to describing and explaining the special effects. I also bought a copy of the shooting script from a script service in California, which was how one obtained unpublished scripts before the Internet existed. I studied all these materials with a great passion.
The film's aesthetics carried greater weight and impact (at least one me) than the film's story and certainly more so than the performances in it. The film combined the talents of concept artist Syd Mead with special effects by Douglas Trumbull and Richard Yuricich. Director Ridley Scott also added many elements both to the visualizations and the film's story and dialogue elements that enhanced the film's overall tone and atmosphere. Scott has referred to the film's landscape as "Hong Kong on a very bad day" and has cited source material, such as Edward Hopper's Nighthawks painting, art work by Europeans such as Moebius from the magazine Métal Hurlant ( known in America as "Heavy Metal"), as well as Fritz Lang's Metropolis film ("Blade Runner," Wikipedia, 2013).
According to the Wikipedia page for Blade Runner, Philip K. Dick ultimately approved of the David People's rewrite of the original script by David Fancher and the 20 minutes of SFX he was shown prior to his death. Dick said,
"I saw a segment of Douglas Trumbull's special effects for Blade Runner on the KNBC-TV news. I recognized it immediately. It was my own interior world. They caught it perfectly." Dick also approved of the film's script, and of it, he said, "After I finished reading the screenplay, I got the novel out and looked through it. The two reinforce each other, so that someone who started with the novel would enjoy the movie and someone who started with the movie would enjoy the novel."[41] The motion picture was dedicated to Dick ("Blade Runner," Wikipedia, 2013).
There are some great resources on the web dedicated to Blade Runner. One such resource was the 2019: Offworld site, which has gone into retirement (pun intended by the site's author; BR fans will get it). But I made the link work because there's still a page that archives a lot of Blade Runner content. From that site: "For people looking for extensive, organized Blade Runner sites, I recommend BRmovie.com and BladeZone. They are two of my favorites and are full of information and links. (And I always recommend checking out Wikipedia for entries, including theirs on Blade Runner.)"
Blade Runner continues to have impact on me today, after over 30 years. I could write volumes about my thoughts on this film. But I want to keep this blog post relatively short. But before closing, a couple more things.
Recently, I read a great book called Ready Player One, which had references to Blade Runner among many other references to favorite '80s media. This was a GREAT book, and if you love 1980s geeky media as much as I do (and even if you do not), you must read it. (Basically, everyone should read it.)
The music. I am crazy for the Blade Runner music. Though there are cuts I like more than others, and I listen to those in sorted, special playlists rather than the soundtrack and its arrangement. As a huge fan of the music, I had a difficult time waiting for it. The actual Vangelis music from the film was not released for over a decade. The first music released was a weird interpretation of the score by the New American Orchestra. Yes, I owned it. Yes, I listened to it MANY TIMES. The first authentic Vangelis release of the music came out in 1994 with a trilogy of CDs with the comprehensive music and soundtrack in 2007. I have listened repeatedly and religiously ever since.
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1607.30 - 10:10
NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #388 - Summer Vacation - Sean Bonner, another newsletter
Hi Mom, Here we are again in a mode in which I share other people's content to get a quick post and also save stuff I want to read later in a place I can easily find it. I also like sharing with you, Mom, and clicking all these links is fun, right?
Here's a newsletter I subscribed to recently by a guy named Sean Bonner.
Dear reader, if you like what you read here, you can subscribe to his newsletter, too at the following link.
I have shared stuff from Sean before, but I liked this one especially as it had a summer vacation theme, and I have felt like I am on vacation all summer so far!
Hi Crowd!
I’m about to go on vacation which is a thing I never did but now realize the importance of whole heartedly. I’m debating if I should bring my laptop or not on the trip because while I can do a good 80% of whatever I need to on my ipad should I need to do things, one of the things I like doing on vacation is writing and I’m still most comfortable typing out my thoughts. I could use that as the excuse to just bring a pen and notebook and force myself to use that but I’m worried I just won’t do it then or that ideas will not flow the way they do when I’m typing. But I’m also into the idea of not having a computer to lug around Europe with me. I don’t leave for 24 hours or so so that’s plenty of time to keep debating the issue with myself. Also, I don't think I can send this newsletter from my ipad.
This morning I realized that when I go to Tumblr I see funny and cute stuff most of the time, and when I go to twitter I see things that make me angry or depressed. I know that is entirely fault because of who I choose to follow on each platform but it’s something I hadn’t noticed before, and now I do. I’m going to try an experiment of not posting negative stuff on twitter just to see how that plays out. And I’ll clarify that by saying that yes, I know sometime it makes me (and others) happy to post negative stuff so I draw a distinction between things that a negative but serve as a release and you feel better afterwards and things that are negative and make you think “fuck, this all sucks” and you feel worse after. But honestly just thinking about it is probably a good step and one I wasn’t thinking about before. Forcing myself to take half a second and consider things is maybe something we should all do a little more often.
If you backed my kickstarter for The New Oklahoma project you should have gotten your pdf of the book already. Printed ones are shipping in a week or two or three or four or something. I’ll plug that here when they are as well as a link for people to buy extra copies.
Holy crap, the CDC are antivaxxers?!! Just kidding, contrary to popular belief constantly checking and reassessing vaccines isn’t anti-science but the actual definition of science. And turns out the FluMist vaccine doesn’t work. Speaking of scientific solutions to everyday problems, maybe the idea of gender should be abolished across the board.
NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #387 - Talking again #2 - Throwback Thursday
Hi Mom, So, here we are again. I have decided that this is now a regular feature. Knowing my content and keeping it easy is what I had conceived for this blog in the first place. And my original idea was just to continue my daily conversations with you. So, despite that I like to go off on any tangent that interests me.
Today is a very busy day. We have Naylor Landscape coming to estimate work, Rogers Heating and Cooling of Richland is here putting in a gas line, and Sun and Shade Awning of Three Rivers will be here soon to put in the new awning. So I am trying to work amid the chaos.
Yesterday was quite by comparison. The dog was at camp, and Dad came over to measure, but mostly I had the house to myself as the kids are on Beaver Island on a trip with Chris and that side of their family.
Tuesday was a truly great day, which I mostly spent with Liesel because I am trying to clear my schedule more, especially during the summer, on her days off.
So, I managed to bang out the most essential work yesterday and took off the rest of the day to spend with my wife, who has Tuesdays off each week. We had a great day. Not that I need much reminding of why I love to be married, and why I especially love to be married to Liesel, but it's days like yesterday's that I cherish.
And we did A LOT. So, early on, Liesel had an appointment, which allowed me to get work done.
Then, Liesel had an appointment for a car repair. I met her at the KIA dealership as she was coming from her appointment and then we went to lunch at the Roadhouse, where we ran into Tom Meyers. Next, we decided to go to Gull Lake for a swim with Dad. We took Satchel who was not interested in going in or even near the water. Upon returning home, we abandoned Satchel to go shopping. Liesel had promised to buy me a pair of shoes because she loves me and is making good money. After buying new Brooks Ghosts at Gazelle and having a chat with Craig Girolami out in front of the Park Club, we went to Crossroads Mall because Liesel realized that nothing would make her happier than buying new tops for work. After a significant amount of shopping, settling in Olga's for salads, we realized we had not fed Satchel and it was passing 7 p.m. Satchel is usually fed around 5-5:30. So, Liesel posted this:
So here's a photo gallery of truly mundane, but I know you love this stuff, Mom. In fact, as the BG would often chide me during these phone calls, telling me you did not want to hear all this stuff, and then I would ask you if he was right, or if you did want to hear it all, and you would say you did love to hear it all, in excruciating detail, and we would laugh, or you would say "Stuff it, Robert," and we would laugh. Though those exchanges were years ago, during your fiesty time.
But here's some of the stuff of our life. Enjoy, Mom.
First, the new awning!
GAS LINE FOR THE GRILL INSTALL
Dad's old grill
THE TRIP TO THE GRILL STORE FOR A PART
wood chips!!
comparable to Dad's old grill
electric smoker
Groceries Saturday 1607.23
SATCHEL
Satchel misses her mom. It's bed time on Friday 1607.22, and Liesel is not yet home from hanging out with co-workers after work.
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1607.28 - 10:10
NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.
Here’s a close-up shot of that newspaper prop, from an on-set photo 
The subtitle reads WORLD WIDE COMPUTER LINKUP PLANNED, in what looks like Optima Bold. While the idea of a World Wide Computer Linkup might seem passé as we approach 2019, it was still very much unusual in 1982 when Blade Runner was released. Indeed, it wasn’t until March 1982 that the US Department of Defense, creators of pre-Internet network ARPANET, declared TCP/IP as the standard for all military computer networking, pretty much kick-starting what we know as the modern-day Internet of 2016.
This ENVIRON CTR PURGE display is identical to the one we saw inAlien, just before the Nostromo exploded:
As if that wasn’t enough self-plagiarism, Ridley Scott also steals a second display from his earlier sci-fi masterpiece:
…which the more observant of you may recognize as Alien’s shuttle disconnect sequence:
…is remarkably similar to the glowing sign for the YUKON hotel seen thirteen minutes later (also known as the temporary home of replicants Leon and Zhora):
