What Is Killing Albatross Chicks in the Falkland Islands?

What Is Killing Albatross Chicks in the Falkland Islands?

Few humans live in the Falkland Islands, an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean off the southern coast of Argentina. But there is a lot of wildlife, especially seabirds, including the largest breeding population of black-browed albatrosses in the world. Considered endangered as recently as 2013, the numbers of these big migrators have since rebounded, and…

San Francisco International Film Festival: Documentary Round Up Part 1

San Francisco International Film Festival: Documentary Round Up Part 1

The cancellation of the 2020 San Francisco International Film Festival was one of the things that really let me know that COVID was happening and here to stay. Attending the longest-running festival in the Western hemisphere is one of the highlights of living in the Bay Area; it’s something I always look forward to and…

How Soviet Children’s Books Became Collectors’ Items in India

How Soviet Children’s Books Became Collectors’ Items in India

When he was about nine or 10 years old, Devadatta Rajadhyaksha read the book The Adventures of Dennis, by Victor Dragunsky. Rajadhyaksha was mesmerized by naughty little Dennis, who kept grass snakes, lizards, and frogs in his pockets, made funny faces in front of the mirror, and liked to hop and skip. The book was…

Small Town Football Underdogs in ‘Under the Stadium Lights’ Trailer

Small Town Football Underdogs in ‘Under the Stadium Lights’ Trailer

“This city chews ’em up, and it spits ’em out.” Saban Films + Paramount have released an official trailer for yet another small town football underdog sports story called Under the Stadium Lights, also known as Brother’s Keeper. The film tells the true story of the 2009 Abilene High School Football team. After a crushing…

Why Hollywood Will Ignore ‘Gutfeld’s’ Strong Late Night Debut

Why Hollywood Will Ignore ‘Gutfeld’s’ Strong Late Night Debut

Late night shows often burst out of the gate with all the celebrity firepower they can muster. For Chevy Chase, that meant corralling on-screen partner Goldie Hawn, along with fellow Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg, for his anticipated 1993 debut. We all know what happened next. Suffice to say the Chevy Chase Theatre is known more…

Nave de Motores de Pacífico (Pacifico Engine Shed) in Madrid, Spain

Nave de Motores de Pacífico (Pacifico Engine Shed) in Madrid, Spain

The Nave de Motores de Pacífico (Pacifico Engine Shed) was designed by the Spanish architect Antonio Palacios. It is an outstanding example of clarity and functionality, and a perfect model of industrial building in the 1920s. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe engine shed was built in 1922 and 1923 and started…

Why Two Rivers Meet But Don’t Mix in the Canadian Arctic

Why Two Rivers Meet But Don’t Mix in the Canadian Arctic

Like partners doing a tango, two rivers in Nunavut, Canada, become a single unit without losing their individual appearance as they move sinuously across the tundra. The darker Back River flows north toward the Arctic Ocean. Along the way, its tributary, the Hayes River, a light, milky blue, joins it but remains visually distinct for…

Partridge in a Bear Tree – Short Film Review

Partridge in a Bear Tree – Short Film Review

★★★★ Directed by: #AdamBailey Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonWritten by: #SophieDutton Starring: #EmillieThomasCurtis, #MarkLewisJones, #SharonMorgan Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’Short Film Review by Taryll Baker Winter is fast approaching, and everyone is getting ready for a nice long sleep… but a certain Little…

MUSIC: How Is Autism Still Misused In Movies?

MUSIC: How Is Autism Still Misused In Movies?

Why are we still doing this? Aren’t we past this? Hasn’t culture evolved to a point where autism is given better representation? We’ve come so far in trying to push back against homophobia, transphobia, racism, and sexism in film. But here we are again, once more saddled with another ableist film. So why are we…

Zinc Smelter in Spelter, West Virginia

Zinc Smelter in Spelter, West Virginia

The word Spelter means commercial or smelted zinc. Beginning in 1910, workers from Spain were brought to this company town in West Virginia to operate a new zinc smelter. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonOver the next 90 years, some four billion pounds of slab zinc were produced, along with 400 million…

Moorten Botanical Garden and Cactarium in Palm Springs, California

Moorten Botanical Garden and Cactarium in Palm Springs, California

The Moorten Family Botanical Gardens was created to share the beauty and extraordinary varieties of desert plants with everyone who visits. It was established in 1938 by Chester “Cactus Slim” Moorten and his wife, Patricia, and features desert trees, plants, and cacti come from around the world and range in size from miniature to giants. Read…

Roman Theatre of Sagunto in Sagunt, Spain

Roman Theatre of Sagunto in Sagunt, Spain

Until it was restored in 1994, this first century Roman theatre in Spain was a magnificent ruin visible on the hillside from a long distance. Though the restoration has made it functional once again, it has covered up much of this historic structure.  Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe theatre was originally…

This Irish Academic Is Getting His PhD in Ghost Whiskey

This Irish Academic Is Getting His PhD in Ghost Whiskey

Irish doctoral student Fionnan O’Connor has been chasing ghosts. He is not pursuing the spectres of deceased warriors or poets, but rather forgotten Irish drinks. In a personal quest that has taken him from quiet university libraries to modern distilleries, he is determined to revive rare spirits made using old-fashioned methods and ingredients, specifically pot-still…

LIMBO Trailer

LIMBO Trailer

There’s nothing to do but waste time in Limbo, the latest from writer/director Ben Sharrock. It’s never easy to wait, but it’s excruciating when you’re waiting to hear about something as life-altering as your asylum application. That’s exactly the situation Omar finds himself in, forced to wile away time in a strange but quiet part of…

Fernweh Park in Oberkotzau, Germany

Fernweh Park in Oberkotzau, Germany

Located in an unassuming suburb of Hof, Fernweh Park is an eclectic collection of thousands of city and street signs from all corners of the world. The park takes its name from the German word Fernweh (literally: “far away-pain”), which is the exact opposite of homesickness (Heimweh), and means “a painful longingness to travel”—proving again…

Spy City

Spy City

By their very nature, spy series require a certain amount of twists and turns. Secret motives, double crosses, and hidden identities are all necessary aspects of the genre, and “Spy City,” which premieres on AMC+ on April 15, rightly possesses them. As MI6 spy Fielding Scott, Dominic Cooper is in Daniel Craig-James Bond mode, all…

Botanical Museum of the National Garden in Athens, Greece

Botanical Museum of the National Garden in Athens, Greece

When the first royal palace of modern Greece was being designed, Queen Amalia assumed oversight of the design of the Royal Gardens. Upon seeing Amalia’s proposed design King Otto, a hunting enthusiast, noticed that the far end of the gardens were near an area he had hunted birds in the past. Based on this, Otto…

The Secret to This Taiwanese Town’s Tofu Is a Mud Volcano

The Secret to This Taiwanese Town’s Tofu Is a Mud Volcano

As with any artist, a great tofu maker relies on his instincts. And for Lin Yih-Cheng, those instincts kick in when the soy milk begins to curdle in the hot wok. He prods the half-liquid, half-solid mush gently with the tip of his spoon, and adds a bit more coagulant—a solution that looks just like…

A Photographer’s Journey Into New Delhi’s House of Djinns

A Photographer’s Journey Into New Delhi’s House of Djinns

It was a sweltering summer afternoon when photographer Taha Ahmad first walked into Feroz Shah Kotla, a sprawling 14th century citadel in New Delhi. At the gate, the guard warned him to take care of his camera. Cheels, birds of prey also known as black kites, circled above his head, trying to catch pieces of…

Harmon: ‘Tuttle Twins’ Toast the American Dream, not Socialism

Harmon: ‘Tuttle Twins’ Toast the American Dream, not Socialism

Daniel Harmon got lucky growing up. The entrepreneur came from a “freedom-loving family” where even his Uncle sat him down to share key principles behind American capitalism. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonWhen Harmon became a parent himself, he realized “how few people get that kind of a foundation.” “Not everyone has…