All tagged film

John Randall made the cavity magnetron produce small electromagnetic waves at an acceptable amount, and then Percy Spencer stood so close to one that his candy bar melted—and this inspired him to take the cavity magnetron and turn it into a food cooker. By 1967, the “microwave oven” was small enough and cheap enough for the home; families could prepare food faster, and eat TV dinners, leading to the decline of Family Dinners and the rise of Primetime Television audiences.

Baby’s First Screenplay; Solomon Grundy v. Calvin Coolidge; a movie about the movie not being told right, and constantly showing different versions of the same scene over and over again until the movie ends; and what it’s like to live in the catch-all cinematic universe as a background character, just trying to navigate the day-to-day while everyone around you has chaotic, high-stakes adventures—et al.

A narrative that jumps to new protagonists for every chapter, but ties it all together in the end; a high-production version of The Man From Earth; the Disney Channel Original Movie Smart House except a social commentary on The Patriot Act and the Internet of Things; more prescient tales about Trump; the world except without the invention of sleep; Russian negligence getting some plucky vacationers ejected into the void of space—et al.

“The apex of Yezhov's career was reached on 20 December 1937, when the party hosted a giant gala to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the NKVD at the Bolshoi Theater. Enormous banners with portraits of Stalin hung side-by-side with those of Yezhov. … Yezhov may well have also realized the danger he was in from such a lavish display of independent public praise; Stalin was always deeply suspicious of the public popularity and political ambitions of his immediate subordinates, and he was present at the event, observing the scene ‘silently and without expression’ from his private box.”

My mother worked in a mental hospital as a nurse shortly after receiving her degree. One of the patients to which she attended was a large black man. She asked him one day how he was doing, and he responded: "Sometimes voices tell me to kill white women." To which she responded, "Are they talking to you now?"

I’m a glutton for “wanting to retell historical stories in the form of biopics and miniseries” but, since I don’t have access to a production studio and Scrooge McDuck’s doubloon vault, just wait for the inevitable podcast series on the topic. Anyway, here are some of those.

I’m just out here trying to bring Robert Moses, Stephen Glass, a Bosnian couple, Jerry Springer’s bodyguards, the 1975 MobileLand Conference, two Dnepropetrovsk maniacs, the Harvey’s Resort Hotel bombing, King Arthur, a Czech Olympian runner, a string of Borscht Belt comedians, fake competition shows, real drug dealers, quality parodies of horror movies, and the hot, vengeful breath of Neanderthal zombies to the big or small screen.