Dan Culberson
Dan Culberson is an author, TV performer, editor and publisher who has been writing about culture, politics and religion since 1994. He was graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in English literature in the Honors Program from the University of Colorado and was president of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He was born in Carmel, CA, but grew up all over the U.S. and Europe, living in Monterey, CA: Medford, OR; Lawton, OK (twice); Pampa, TX; Minot, ND; El Paso, TX; Tacoma, WA; Kennewick, WA; Erlangen, Germany; Lebanon, MO; Colorado Springs, CO (where he attended high school); Boulder, CO (where he attended college and now lives); and Heidelberg while serving in the U.S. Army and Sindelfingen, Germany while on assignment for IBM. He served three years in the U.S. Army, retired from IBM after 25 years with a career in publications and is a writer, editor and publisher who came of age in the Sixties, which he remembers quite well. He was named a Boulder Pacesetter in 1985 by the BOULDER DAILY CAMERA in the first year of that program and was a film reviewer from 1972 to 2014 for newspapers, magazines, radio stations and TV programs.
Homepage: http://c1n.tv
Posts by Dan Culberson
“In a World…” Is Too Amateurish
Sep 20th
“Too Amateurish”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
In a World… takes its title from the opening words made famous by legendary voiceover artist Don LaFontaine from the many promos and movie previews he recorded in Hollywood.
Lake Bell wrote, directed, and stars as Carol Solomon in this film about the voiceover industry in Hollywood, which we are told is sexist, in that very few women are used as voiceover artists.
Now, we know how Hollywood likes to make movies about itself, but if most of those self-absorbed movies are about as interesting as insiders inspecting their own belly buttons, this one about an aspect of Hollywood that is less known than making films themselves is, could be dismissed as being so self-absorbed and self-indulgent that it is as interesting as insiders inspecting their belly buttons and their toes for toe jam.
However, it does contain some subplots that are intended to make the film more interesting, such as the lousy way that Carol’s father treats her and her older sister, Danielle.
For example, at the beginning of the movie Carol is living at home with her widowed father, who comes home one day and tells Carol, “Jamie is going to be moving in, you’re going to have to find another place to live.”
Jamie is Sam’s girlfriend, and she is the stereotypical dumb blonde bimbo, a character included in movies written by lazy writers to get some cheap laughs.
So, Carol, who makes her living as a vocal coach, moves in with her sister, who works as a concierge at a fancy hotel.
However, Carol would like to break into the voiceover business, where Sam is well known and respected as a voiceover artist.
A search is on for a voiceover artist to record the promos for an upcoming series of films known as The Amazon Games, and Carol would like to get that gig, knowing that her father desperately wants that job himself.
Then there are other subplots involving Louis, an engineer at the recording studio where Carol works, who would like to go out with Carol, but he is too shy to ask, and a guest at the hotel where Danielle works is interested in Danielle, which causes problems in Danielle’s personal life.
The main plot and all the subplots are like belly buttons and toe jam.
In a World… is too amateurish.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Blackfish” Tragic Story of Tilikum’s Revenge
Aug 31st
“Tilikum’s Revenge”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Blackfish is a heartbreaking documentary about what has happened once again when humans mess with Mother Nature.
As an old television commercial used to say, “It’s not nice to mess with Mother Nature.”
“Blackfish” is the name that the First Nation’s people call the orca, or small gregarious whale that is also known as the killer whale, which we are told has 48 sharp teeth but is amazingly friendly and has no record of doing harm to humans in the wild.
The operative phrase here is “in the wild,” because the movie begins with a 911 call on February 24, 2010, from SeaWorld Park in San Diego and the chilling words, “A whale has eaten one of the trainers.”
The trainer was Dawn Brancheau, who was drowned and torn apart in front of horrified families during her performance with an orca named Tilikum.
Tilikum, one of the largest orcas in captivity, is now estimated to be 32, and he had been linked to two other deaths since he was captured in 1983 off the east coast of Iceland.
Incidentally, orcas are believed to have a life span comparable to that of humans, and we learn that there is every indication that they use language, and their brains have a part that humans don’t have, which is associated with an emotional center.
So, what went wrong with this gentle giant?
The movie uses interviews with experts and former trainers from SeaWorld and other marine parks to help us understand what happened in Tilikum’s past and come to a conclusion as to why this tragic death was not an accident and certainly not caused by anything the trainer did.
We learn about how orcas are trained to perform tricks during shows, how they are punished even by other orcas when they don’t perform as desired, and how mothers grieve when their babies are taken away from them and shipped to other marine parks for various reasons.
We also see interviews and learn about other tragedies around the world involving trained orcas at other marine parks, and you start to wonder how we allowed the situation to get to this point and why we allow it to continue to this day.
Blackfish is the tragic story of Tilikum’s revenge, who today is kept caged and brought out only to take bows.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”