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So, my planned Monday post (prior to Bin Laden's departure from this veil of tears) was going to be about 1960s movies. My planned Tuesday post was going to be about my recent jury duty in DuPage county. Today's post will address both those topics.
2001, A Space Odyssey and 1960s Movies
Over the weekend, I watched an uncut version of 2001, A Space Odyssey. I hadn't seen the movie in its entirety for years. What struck me the most was how slow the movie was. Even basic "get from point A to B" scenes seemed to move at a (to a modern viewer) glacial pace.
Now, in that particular movie, some of the slowness was due to a desire to show the then-new eye candy of space travel. But, and I've talked about this previously, back in the 1960s and 1970s, movie-makers were more willing to take their time in setting up scenes. You'll see that a lot in all sorts of movies from that era.
Lastly, I found it amusing to see how many of the corporate logos had aged (badly) since the movie's release. For example, AT & T's bell logo on a phone booth, and Pan Am's logo on a spaceship, or the Howard Johnson's (!) logo on the space station restaurant.
Jury Duty
In DuPage county, we have a "one jury or one day" system. If you don't get on a jury by the end of the day, you're done. I managed to miss getting called, but somewhat narrowly. After sitting in the jury lounge until 2 PM (think "mid-priced doctor's office waiting room") and finishing my book, 30 of us were called for six-person jury.
The case was a DUI, and based on the defense's questions, the defense had no case and was just going to pound the table. Now, forcing the police to prove even slam-dunk cases is a valid and important task. It's not one I'm interested in. Fortunately, after questioning 11 jurors, they got a panel, and I got to go home.
2001, A Space Odyssey and 1960s Movies
Over the weekend, I watched an uncut version of 2001, A Space Odyssey. I hadn't seen the movie in its entirety for years. What struck me the most was how slow the movie was. Even basic "get from point A to B" scenes seemed to move at a (to a modern viewer) glacial pace.
Now, in that particular movie, some of the slowness was due to a desire to show the then-new eye candy of space travel. But, and I've talked about this previously, back in the 1960s and 1970s, movie-makers were more willing to take their time in setting up scenes. You'll see that a lot in all sorts of movies from that era.
Lastly, I found it amusing to see how many of the corporate logos had aged (badly) since the movie's release. For example, AT & T's bell logo on a phone booth, and Pan Am's logo on a spaceship, or the Howard Johnson's (!) logo on the space station restaurant.
Jury Duty
In DuPage county, we have a "one jury or one day" system. If you don't get on a jury by the end of the day, you're done. I managed to miss getting called, but somewhat narrowly. After sitting in the jury lounge until 2 PM (think "mid-priced doctor's office waiting room") and finishing my book, 30 of us were called for six-person jury.
The case was a DUI, and based on the defense's questions, the defense had no case and was just going to pound the table. Now, forcing the police to prove even slam-dunk cases is a valid and important task. It's not one I'm interested in. Fortunately, after questioning 11 jurors, they got a panel, and I got to go home.
