Category Archives: Uncategorized
The Doctor is In
(Monorail scene in Jurassic World. Image from Now You Know Facts Online)
Dr. Ian Malcom’s clever book placements in Jurassic World were no coincidence.
The actor, who co-starred in 1993’s Jurassic Park and 1997’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park, will appear in Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment’s next Jurassic World film.
–Rebecca Ford, The Hollywood Reporter
Jeff Goldblum’s return sparks a few thoughts:
- Given the late casting, was Jeff Golblum supposed to be in the Jurassic World sequel from the inception of this new trilogy’s story development? Or was this late casting news intended to keep plot details as secret as possible, on a literal need-to-know basis for the public?
- The storytelling gate has been opened, if only slightly, to begin to gradually weave the original cast back to the Jurassic universe before a dramatic Act III entrance in the third film of this trilogy.
- The story and character arc for Dr. Ian Malcolm must be quite good to entice Jeff Goldblum to return 20 years later.
Without context or plot details (or seeing the film, quite frankly), it’s difficult to make a final, definitive judgement on this casting move. Having said that, welcoming Jeff Goldblum to the Jurassic World sequel is very exciting. From 10,000 feet, this decision seems like a great bridge not only from the original film (and The Lost World) to this new sequel, but also in bringing back the tone and wit of Jurassic Park that was noticeably absent in Jurassic World.
Otherwise, this forthcoming sequel may feel a bit chaotic…aside from all of the dinosaurs.
P.S. I wonder what Ellie Sattler’s book title would be?
Don’t Bite the Hand (With the Apple) That Feeds You
In the case of Uber, their app is proving to be just the appetizer to their much larger financial feast.
And it’s been recently revealed that one of their servers is not happy.
The business landscape in the United States, and around the world, continues to flatten and be driven by seemingly boundless innovation within marketplaces both new and established. Whether you are pro or anti-taxi (or neutral), there’s no doubt that the car driving service Uber is providing competition to those famous yellow cars and vans. Having used Uber on many occasions with friends, I have no complaints as a rider. The immediacy, timeliness and incentive to impress is certainly a valuable change of pace from having to wait for a taxi that may or may not show up when needed.
However, as is the case with any business, the front room flash and dash rarely tells the whole story of its backroom operations.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, to his credit, is flexing his muscles for a necessary and positive stand regarding proper business practices in the ever-evolving and mysterious tech space. While Tim Cook will never achieve the fandom or dedicated following as the late Steve Jobs (can anyone?), Mr. Cook has, in recent years, proven to be an impressive CEO in the grounded, traditional sense. His repeated stands for customer privacy rights is painting a rare picture of a tech giant who is genuinely attempting to grow and innovate within the technology industry while striving to prioritize essential protections for his consumers.
The abbreviated expression is, “an apple a day…” Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Kalanick was likely reminded of just how many people use an Apple each day.
Happy Monday
While we can’t always change what happens to us, we can change the way we see what happens to us.
This blog post, taking its place on the weekly Happy Monday circuit, has one purpose. And that purpose is to creatively showcase how we all have the incredible power to look at a situation from a completely different angle (or series of various angles) at any given time, thereby giving that moment a fresh perspective and outlook.
I’d like to say it’s as easy as 1-2-3.
Except, it’s pole vaulting, so it’s not easy at all. However, the views are spectacular and well worth it, particularly when you let someone else do the whole pole vaulting thing with a GoPro camera.
Here’s to getting over the challenges of this workweek…perhaps with a bird’s-eye view?
Have a Better Week Than Last Week.
The Virtual Reality of Our Dreams
How different is virtual reality from dreaming?
Expanding on yesterday’s blog post (“What Will Be Your Spinning Top?”), a primary rationale for trying virtual reality is escapism. The same goes for movies, TV, music, art, vacationing, etc. Escapism is powerful. Escapism is an amazing thing. In realizing so, virtual reality (VR) can take this universal dreamlike pursuit and characteristic of virtually everybody in the world and capitalize on this frequent need and want to explore and immerse ourselves into all sorts of places, real and imagined. It’s not far-fetched to speculate the world we live in today, on planet Earth day-to-day, could become just the ground level of myriad worlds and realities, customized by the individual.
One of the connections made in “What Will Be Your Spinning Top?” was between VR and the movie Inception. While I am in no way predicting a shot-for-shot vision of the film for the evolving technology of VR, I do believe there is an argument to be made that VR will feel more like an indistinguishable dream than a static experience standing in the middle of a Best Buy aisle.
With a headset, of course.
Take a visual ride into what I’m talking about.
Accomplishing something in five minutes that usually takes an hour? Not such a bad reality.
Or dream-like world?
Or reality…?
Jimmy's Daily Planet 