In this article, I want to talk about various things related to the upcoming remastered home video release of James Cameron’s underwater sci-fi thriller The Abyss (1989). In particular, I want to focus on the subject of its new color grade and how it makes visible the fact that digital remastering effectively modernizes movies.
Before that though, I will briefly discuss the movie itself and its amazing DVD.
ContentsBrief Thoughts on the Movie
Some conflict reporters go to Harvard and earn Masters Degrees in International Relations. Others work for UNICEF and branch out. And then there are those of us who score a dream journalism job at twenty, under the barrage of glitter bombs that is Hollywood. I wouldn’t change this training ground for the world and I wanted to share a few recollections from those old journals…
The fondest memories I have are of seeing newcomers, genuinely lovely people, rise through the ranks into superstardom.
On his next birthday, LeBron James will turn 40, without another championship and no postseason experience beyond a possible play-in event. When he says the Lakers “just suck right now,” he senses it’s a season-long plague. His warnings are focused on his coach, Darvin Ham, who only last month won a punchline called the In-Season Tournament but suddenly is on LeBron’s diminished-means list.
That includes Frank Vogel, who won an NBA title in 2020, and before him, Luke Walton, and before him, David Blatt in Cleveland, and before that, Erik Spoelstra in Miami, who had to be saved by Pat Riley before he was jettisoned.
Happy winter solstice, happy long darkness. Is it time soon to crack an eye open and squint toward a clarifying next year? I’d like to keep sleeping, but the days keep coming. 2024 will bring a few more Mount Eerie shows for me to tell you about along the historically hippie dippy west coast. Tickets are all on sale now by clicking on the venue name:
Friday, March 1st, 2024 - Ojai, Cal.
In November 2019, when Tesla announced its unlovely and (as it turned out) poorly designed Cybertruck, I reported some of the jokey alternative names that were being proposed by skeptics: Starship Pooper, Millennial Falcon, Mystery Science Aztek 3000, Muskmobile.
Now, thanks to a tip from reader/friend Mike Pope, I’ve learned a new name for the Cybertruck and its galumphing ilk: Wankpanzer.
Wankpanzer is a hilariously apt word. I love it! And now I am going to risk ruining it for you by explaining the joke.