Time capsule: 2008 So 2008, yay or nay? We were in the middle of what would be a landmark Presidential campaign, but also mired in a recession following the collapse of the housing market. The stock market plunged and throughout the year, the rest of the world felt the fallout of this financial crisis, forcing numerous national economies into recession. But there were some pleasant distractions along the way that could give us a little respite. “Breaking Bad” debuted on AMC. Seth MacFarlane reached a four-year agreement with Fox to keep “Family Guy” and “American Dad” on the air at least until 2012. "Mad Men" and "30 Rock" were the big winners at the Emmy Awards. Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched the first ever private spacecraft into orbit, while the Large Hadron Collider powered up in Geneva, Switzerland. The New York Giants became Super Bowl champs by beating the New England Patriots. The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Tampa Bay Rays for the World Series title,...

  With theaters still not operating, for the most part, many of us are looking to streaming services to watch movies, new and not so new. With this category on this blog, I will explore the films I believe are the absolute best of the 21st Century so far. Be sure to check them out on whichever streaming service you subscribe to.    The Station Agent Director: Tom McCarthy Stars: Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale, Paul Benjamin, Michelle Williams Finbar McBride (Peter Dinklage) is a little person who leads a rather solitary existence. He has shut himself off from the rest of the world seemingly because he is constantly subject to ridicule, subtle and overt, because of his height. He appears to live in a rather small town and works at a hobby store devoted to model trains. He also belongs to a group that loves to watch actual vintage trains. Despite hosting the meetings of his fellow train watchers, Fin doesn’t seem to be particularly close to a...

  Time capsule: 2006 What was 2006 like for you? Was it a memorable year, one to forget, or a year that was just “meh?” Here's a little reminder of some of the year's more notable events. In 2006, the Pittsburgh Steelers became Super Bowl champs while the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series. The Carolina Hurricanes, formerly the Hartford Whalers, won the Stanley Cup and the Miami Heat, led by Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade, won the NBA title. The University of Florida won the NCAA football AND basketball championships. In business, Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion. Vice President Dick Cheney shot a friend accidentally while quail hunting in Texas, and NASA launched the New Horizons spacecraft to fly by Pluto/Charon and view other Kuiper Belt objects. Facebook opened to anyone over 13-years old with a valid e-mail address and television’s Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, was killed after a run-in with a stingray. The top television shows in 2006 were “Ame...

  With theaters still not operating, for the most part, many of us are looking to streaming services to watch movies, new and not so new. With this category on this blog, I will explore the films I believe are the absolute best of the 21st Century so far. Be sure to check them out. Moon  Director: Duncan Jones Stars: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey, Dominique McElligott In the not-too-distant future, Earth has found a new source of energy that meets the needs of about 70 percent of the planet. And it all comes from the moon. Energy from the sun is trapped in moon rock, then harvested and converted to helium-3. With that kind of background, “Moon” could have gone in a thousand different directions. But this is an atypical science fiction film: one intended to bring about a visceral reaction and perhaps the kind you didn’t expect. Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) leads a lonely existence at the moon base where he, alone, oversees the largely automated harvesting process. He makes sure...

  Director: Shaka King                      Stars: Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons, Ashton Sanders, Martin Sheen According to J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI in the 1960s, America’s biggest threats to its sovereignty weren’t from abroad, they were from within. Because of that belief of Hoover’s, the Bureau formed a series of surveillance operations in the late 1950s called COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program), in which it infiltrated numerous political organizations it considered subversive. One of its targets in the late 1960s was the leader of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers, Fred Hampton (played here by Daniel Kaluuya). Director Shaka King’s portrayal is tragic  as we witness the potential Hampton exhibited at such a young age only to have his life cut short. It is also a sobering reminder of  how cunning and ruthless Hoover’s FBI could be, not to mention dismissive of due process...