Marvels
RIP Wanda Young, 78, whose name may not be familiar but her voice certainly is. She was frequently the lead vocalist for Motown all-girl group The Marvelettes. She was out front on Don’t Mess with Bill, a million-seller that hit #7 on the Hot 100; The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game, which climbed to #13; and My Baby Must Be a Magician, which rose to #17. Well done, madam. Thank you.
This weekend’s movie fix, courtesy of Netflix by mail, was a good one, Voyagers (2021). It is serious sci-fi that seems influenced by William Golding’s classic novel Lord of the Flies. With Earth in its final years, a plan is hatched to send a group of young people on an 86-year journey to a planet with similar features. All are test tube babies, seemingly without much knowledge of history. They have lived their entire lives in a shelter until it is time to leave. They are fed synthetic food, including a blue fluid that suppresses libido. When two males figure this out, trouble begins. Traits they did not know existed emerge. Sides are taken. Who will prevail: the good or the lawless? This is keen examination of humans, although perhaps a bit too grim. Colin Farrell stars as the supervisor. The main co-stars are Tye Sheridan of X-Men fame, London’s Fionn Whitehead, and Lily-Rose Depp, daughter of Johnny and French singer Vanessa Paredis. All are excellent. Neil Burger wrote and directed the flick. Among his twelve stints at the helm is Limitless (2011), which I really enjoyed. He also has seven credits as a producer and five as a writer. This is one of those films where I break from the IMDb consensus, which 16,000+ users at IMDb put at 5.4 on a scale of ten. I’ll go with seven. It tanked at the Box Office, returning only four million on a budget of $21 million. Maybe the serious tone turned people off. Bear in mind that it was released during the pandemic. Those who prefer slam bang sci-fi should pass. The violence and sexuality are mild, especially compared to modern fare.
Headline from nypost.com: “Man explodes Tesla after mechanics charge $23K for a new battery.” The guy, Finnish, bought the vehicle in 2013, and it rode like a dream — for about the first 930 miles. “It was an excellent car,” he said. “Then the error codes hit.” Experts strapped 30kg of dynamite to only one side of the car in order to direct the shrapnel. (Article by Hannah Sparks)
Man, what a day to sell stuff curbside. It was gorgeous. My thanks to the sweet elderly woman who did her customary weekend swap and buy of Russian books, and to the gentleman who bought seven hard covers in that language, including three translations of novels by Arthur Hailey; and to the woman who purchased two more; and to the man who selected In Country, a novel about Vietnam vets by Bobbie Ann Mason; and to the friendly guy who took home this gem:
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