Tinkerer's Delight

I am a confessed tinkerer.  I think it's genetic. My brain as a child was warped by reading those books about famous inventors and scientists. I believed that I could build anything.  I did have may famous follies.  Most notable was a rocket. In the 1950's space travel was depicted in Life Magazine as rocket and satellite whizzing through the universe.  Why should I not build my own model rocket from scratch.  I had built model planes and cars.  My first plane was a Piper Cub, built it before I could read, just followed the step-by-step pictures.  When I was about  and my interest in rockets peaked I would build a gunpowder powered rocket.   Around the house I found everything I needed: gunpowder from Dad's shotgun shells, an empty toilet paper tube for the body of the rocket, and a nosecone I whittled from the wood of a packing crate.  After assembly, needed a way to ignite the powder remotely.  I didn't want to use a traditional fuse. (That would put me too close to the rocket.  I scrounged a bit of with from a discarded hot plate and wrapped between two nails and inserted it into the tail of the rocket.  I had an old piece of two-conductor wire with a plug on it and attached one wire to each nail.  Time for the countdown.  3-2-1-(plug it in)-Blast-off!

Smoke and fire were forthcoming, but it did not move.

My family was upset about the loss of electricity.  I was severely admonished for another one of my "scientific" projects.

I can't help but wonder what I could have done with the shop below.

Fairey Tale Redux

I like the movie, Hanna.  It's the story of a genetically altered teenage girl, Saoirse Ronan, trained by her father, Eric Bana, to be a fighting machine. An innocent sought to be destroyed by the resident evil, Cate Blanchette. It has nuances of fantasy with the chill  of a good thriller and a story line that is vaguely familiar. I particularly like the visual effects of the film. It appeared to be shot in the post apocalypic light of the future. The action scenes, and there are many, are well done but not quite overdone and the CGI work blends effortlessly. But the fight scenes, as in most current films, seem to be video game recreations. One note on lack of detail: The warm breath of the dying caribou in the opening scene does not fog the cold northern  air. All actors offer good performances, but I feel that Blanchette underplayed her role a bit. The bloody tooth brushing scene is a plus. The film exhibits good direction by Joe Wright, the London trained director, known for his direction of Atonement. 



It's a good thriller and I would watch it again.

Linx:

• Roger Ebert's Review
• Director
• Rotten Tomatoes