Random Thoughts #52 - "I Can Hear the Rain! All 12 Inches of It!"

Well, it’s been a minute since I’ve been here. I’ve been dealing with work which has been good. I’ve been setting up a new blog on Wordpress (Comic Crossover Central). Then, there’s the fact that my girlfriend’s birthday is around Valentine’s Day. That took a while to plan. Then, there’s just the fact that February (and March) tend to be break periods for me. There’s also the fact that this PS4 contraption’s been taking my time. Either way, I’m back for a bit. So, it’s time to get to some Random Thoughts.

“Space, The Final Frontier!”

Back in February, we went to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville for my girlfriend’s birthday. In all the time I’ve gone to Huntsville to visit family, I’ve never been there. I think the closest I got to it was a job fair that was being held in that vicinity. Anyway, we saw some good sites and got to spend some quality time together learning about the space program. I didn’t take too many pics for some reason, but I did get some nice ones. It was just a good day in general.

“Rain? What Rain?”

"This was fun," I mentally sarcastically said. 

Man, Tennessee’s been getting hit with rain. It’s like God said, “You know, I think I’ll hit y’all with something other than snow this time!” I ain’t complaining too much, but when you’re being reminded of the floods Tennessee had from 2010, it’s a little worrying. While Nashville got hit as usual, most of TN got it hard. I know Giles County especially around Elk River was looking scary. Me and my dad even had to fish out a couple of our tarps from a stream. It was nuts. Maybe we’ll get with that snow in March, but you never know these days.

Book Review/Movie Talk - 2001: A Space Odyssey

Next up is a movie that I hadn’t seen until sometime last year. I may call myself a fan of science fiction, but there are still some things I haven’t seen yet. This was one of them. 2001: A Space Odyssey was released in 1968. It was based on a screenplay written by director, Stanley Kubrick and writer, Arthur C. Clarke. The novel by Clarke was actually written during the production of the movie, so the book is more of a novelization. That was something I didn’t know until I started researching it. I thought the movie was based on the book. The screenplay itself was based on “The Sentinel” and “Encounter in the Dawn,” two earlier stories written by Clark.

As I said before, I saw the movie last year during Thanksgiving. I had it for a while before I watched it fully. I just read the novel this month. I’ve always heard that this movie was considered to be influential in a lot of ways to different writers and directors. I heard that it’s considered to be one of the best sci-fi movies of all time. From what I’ve seen online, that’s true for the most part. I have seen detractors of the movie though. The one I remember most is Confused Matthew’s multi-part review on the movie. He didn’t like it that much. Seeing it then, I can probably see why. So, what do I think of the movie and book? Find out below.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Directed by: Stanley Kubrick

Novel and movie written by Arthur C. Clarke

BRIEF BLURB: In the 21^st century, humanity sends astronauts into deep space when they find an alien artifact that was around during the dawn of Man.