#7 "create a blog post about anything technology related that interests you this week":
I've been an Amazon fan since it first appeared in the mid 90s...I've become much more self-disciplined about ordering from it, but I'm still fascinated by all the great reviews you can find under the books, dvd and music sections. Over the years I've even made friends with a few people who post their thoughts on Amazon products...which makes me wonder, "wouldn't Amazon make a great social networking site?"
Here are a few personal reasons why my mind is wandering this way:
-two years ago someone I knew in high school contacted me about a post I'd made on Amazon concerning a soundtrack...I hadn't seen this person in years and we were able to start talking again and now are also connected on goodreads.com (link isn't working right now)
(if you haven't seen goodreads.com yet, you've just got to check it out)
-my favorite film ever is "Somewhere in Time"...a while ago I found out about an incredibly detailed website for the movie from someone on Amazon who got in touch with me through my profile page on the store's site.
-I've also e-mailed people on amazon and gotten some great recommendations for books and films...
-the successful online store includes a people search section (though it's hard to find unless you know what you're looking for) and I found someone after all other "people search engines" had failed me:)...
As I make my way to my blurb on wikipedia, here's a neat fact about Amazon:
The company began operating as an online bookstore under the name Cadabra.com (as in abracadabra), a name that Bezos quickly abandoned due to its sounding like "cadaver".[2] While the largest brick-and-mortar bookstores and mail-order catalogs for books might offer 200,000 titles, an online bookstore could offer many times more. Bezos renamed his company "Amazon" after the world's most voluminous river....source: Wikipedia
There's a certain patron (who shall go unnamed:) ) who loves wikipedia more than life itself. I was doing fine without and then I, too, fell under its spell...mostly because of a lazy Sunday afternoon when I was sick enough (I had a cold) to watch "The Grudge 2". I needed a back story for the first "Grudge" so I went online to wikipedia and sure enough every last detail of the film was put forth clearly and in a way that made it easy to follow (though not necessarily easy to bear) the "Grudge" sequel.
It works the same way with tv shows and pretty much anything else with a plot...here is an example, using "Somewhere in Time": (contains spoilers)
Somewhere in Time (film)
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This article is about the 1980 film. For the Iron Maiden album, see Somewhere in Time (album).
Somewhere in Time
original movie poster
Directed by Jeannot Szwarc
Produced by Stephen Deutsch
Ray Stark
Written by Richard Matheson
Starring Christopher Reeve
Jane Seymour
Christopher Plummer
Teresa Wright
Bill Erwin
Music by John Barry
Cinematography Isidore Mankofsky
Editing by Jeff Gourson
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s) October 3, 1980
Running time 103 min.
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Budget $5,100,000 (estimated)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile
Somewhere in Time is a 1980 time travel romance film directed by Jeannot Szwarc, written by Richard Matheson and starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, Christopher Plummer, Teresa Wright and an early cameo by William H. Macy. The movie was filmed on location at the historic, very beautiful and majestic Grand Hotel, and the former Mackinac College - both located on Mackinac Island, Michigan.
Although this movie was well received during its previews, it was ruthlessly trashed by the critics upon release and was unsuccessful at the box office. It has earned a large and loyal following since its release to cable television and video, and the movie is now regarded by many to be a cult classic. The film's tagline is: "He sacrificed life in the present... to find love in the past."
Reeve plays Richard Collier, a playwright who falls in love with a photograph of a young woman at the Grand Hotel. Through self-hypnosis, he travels back in time to the year 1912 to find love with actress Elise McKenna (portrayed by Seymour). But her manager William Fawcett Robinson (portrayed by Plummer) is not happy at all and is resolved to stop him at all costs.
The film is adapted from the 1975 novel Bid Time Return by science fiction writer Richard Matheson, which was subsequently re-released under the film's title. The film is known for its beautiful musical score, composed by John Barry. In addition to Barry's score, the eighteenth variation of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini runs throughout the film.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Plot summary
* 2 Differences from the novel
* 3 Timeline
* 4 Awards
* 5 Fan club
* 6 Trivia
* 7 Main cast
* 8 External links
[edit] Plot summary
The film begins in May 1972, when playwright Richard Collier meets an old woman who gives him a pocket watch asking him to come back to her. Eight years later, Richard stays at the Grand Hotel and falls in love with a photograph of a beautiful woman. Richard asks Arthur Biehl, an old man who's been at the hotel since 1910, who the woman is and learns that she is Elise McKenna, a famous stage actress. Richard then researches who Elise is and learns that she was the old woman who gave him the pocket watch eight years ago.
Richard learns about time travel from an old college professor of his and that it can be achieved if one can go under hypnosis. However, to achieve this state of hypnosis, one must remove all things from sight that are related to the current time. He is also warned that such a process would leave one very weak, perhaps dangerously so. Richard heads back to his hotel room and then tries to travel back in time to the year 1912 under hypnosis with a tape recorder only to fail under stress. After a trip to the hotel's attic, Richard finds an old guest book from 1912 with his signature in it only to learn that he was there.
Richard again goes under hypnosis (this time without the tape recorder, since it was not around in 1912) and succeeds. Upon arriving in 1912, Richard looks all over the hotel for Elise, even meeting Arthur as a little boy, and has no luck finding her. Finally, Richard meets Elise standing by a tree by the lake and she asks him if he's the one. Before he can ask why, Elise's manager, William Fawcett Robinson, tells Richard to leave Miss McKenna alone. Richard continues to seek Elise out again until finally she agrees to walk with him. Richard finally asks why Elise asked if he was the one and she replies that Robinson knows that she will meet a man that will change her life. Richard also shows Elise the same pocket watch in which she will give him 60 years later.
Upon returning to the hotel, Elise invites Richard to her play. Richard attends the play and upon visiting Elise during intermission finds her getting her picture taken. Upon spotting Richard, Elise smiles and the picture is then taken. This picture is the same one in which Richard will see 68 years later at the Grand Hotel. Later, Richard receives a letter from Robinson asking to meet him immediately, that it is a matter of life and death. Robinson tricks Richard and has him tied up and thrown into the stables. Later, Robinson tells Elise that Richard has left her and isn't the one, but she replies that she doesn't believe him and he's wrong. Elise admits to Robinson that she loves Richard and that he will make her very happy. Dispirited, Robinson leaves her dressing room and reminds her that they leave within the hour.
Richard wakes up the next morning and escapes the stables. He runs to Elise's room only to discover that her party has left. Richard then goes out to the hotel's deck to find Elise running towards him. They return to his room together and make love. Later that evening, Elise asks Richard if he's going to marry her in which he responds yes. She then tells him that the first thing she will do for him is buy him a new suit (the suit Richard has been wearing the entire time in 1912 is about ten to fifteen years out of style). Richard begins to show Elise what a wonderful suit it is because of its many pockets. He is alarmed when he reaches into one and finds a penny that has the date of 1979 on it. Snapping him out of his hypnotic-induced time travel, Richard fades from 1912 with Elise screaming his name in horror as he drifts back to 1980.
Richard wakes up in the hotel having returned back to his own time. He is very weak, physically and emotionally exhausted from his trip through time. He tries to hypnotise himself again without success. After wandering around the hotel and staring for hours at Elise's picture, Richard returns to his room where he sits in a daze for days without eating. Arthur checks on Richard in his room and finds him very sick and calls for a doctor. Richard then sees himself drifting above his body and is drawn to a light in a window. In the light is Elise, waiting for him just as he remembered her where they will remain together for all time.
[edit] Differences from the novel
In the novel, Richard travels from 1971 to 1896 rather than 1980 to 1912, and the setting is the Hotel del Coronado rather than the Grand Hotel. Unlike the movie, he is dying from a brain tumor, and the book leaves open the possibility that the time-traveling experience occurs only in his mind. The scene where the old woman hands Richard a pocket watch (which an older version of himself had given to her) does not appear in the book. Thus, the ontological paradox generated by this event is absent; however, there are more subtle versions of the same sort of paradox. Richard thinks he remembers having once met an old Elise, and he does find an old hotel register with what he takes to be his signature, but we don't know how reliable his perspective is. In the book, it is two psychics, not William Fawcett Robinson, who anticipate Richard's appearance. And Richard's death at the end is brought upon by his tumor, not heartbreak.
[edit] Timeline
* 1912
o Thursday, June 27: Richard wakes up at the Grand Hotel and meets Elise near the lake.
o Friday, June 28: Richard invites Elise to go on a walk with him. Later that night, he attends her play.
o Saturday, June 29: Richard finds a 1979 penny in his pocket and wakes up. He also leaves behind his pocket watch.
* 1972
o May 19: Elise returns the pocket watch to Richard. She also returns home and dies of old age.
* 1980
o Richard stays at the Grand Hotel and falls in love with Elise's picture.
o Richard hypnotizes himself to go back to 1912.
o Richard wakes up from 1912 and tries to go back, but can't.
o Richard dies from a broken heart in his room days later.
[edit] Awards
Somewhere in Time has received several awards, including:
* Saturn Award for Best Costume,
* Saturn Award for Best Music,
* Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film.
The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Costume Design.
[edit] Fan club
In 1990, Somewhere in Time fan Bill Shepard founded International Network of Somewhere In Time Enthusiasts (INSITE) to "Honor the film, and those responsible for its creation, to Inform members about all aspects of it and enhance their appreciation of it, as well as to Influence public and media perception of the film, to assure its recognition as the classic we know it to be." INSITE has erected a plaque near the hotel to commemorate the first encounter of the film's lovers. In 1997, the fan club also paid for Reeve's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The club can be joined online [1]. The Grand Hotel hosts an annual convention for fans of the film.
[edit] Trivia
Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
* Richard Matheson, who wrote the original novel and screenplay, appears in a cameo role as an astonished 1912 hotel guest. The cause of his astonishment is apparently Richard's face after cutting himself shaving with a straight-razor.
* Director Jeannot Szwarc had a slight problem directing the scenes between Christopher Plummer and Christopher Reeve in that whenever he said "Chris" both men would respond with "Yes?" Szwarc resolved this by deciding to address Christopher Plummer as "Mr. Plummer" and addressing Christopher Reeve as "Bigfoot".
* The final scene between Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour before Reeve's character is thrown back into his own time was difficult for Reeve to shoot because he had just learned that his then girlfriend and companion, Gae Exton, was pregnant with his first son, Matthew, so for much of that day his attention was understandably elsewhere.
* In the film, Reeve's character refers to a Dr. Finney as an expert on time travel. This is very probably a reference to author Jack Finney, whose novel Time and Again features a very similar approach to traveling through time; Matheson has acknowledged that Finney's novel had great influence over his own.[citation needed]
* The cars used in the film required special permission from the town to be brought onto, and driven on, the island. The cast and crew of the film were only allowed to drive the vehicles during filming. Motorized vehicles, other than emergency vehicles and snowmobiles in the winter, are prohibited on Mackinac Island. Transportation is limited to horse and buggy or bicycle.
* Director Jeannot Szwarc helmed the 1984 feature film Supergirl. In an early stage of that film's development, Christopher Reeve was to reprise his role as Superman. Since 2003, Szwarc directed several episodes of the hit TV Series Smallville featuring Reeve as Virgil Swann, a scientist who became a friend of Clark Kent (Tom Welling). Jane Seymour played a recurring character during season 4 called Genevieve Teague. In one of Szwarc's episodes, "Void", there is a visual allusion to Somewhere in Time when Lana is pulled back against her will into reality, mirroring Richard's return to the present in the film.
[edit] Main cast
Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour in Somewhere in Time
Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour in Somewhere in Time
Actor Role
Christopher Reeve Richard Collier
Jane Seymour Elise McKenna
Christopher Plummer William Fawcett Robinson
Teresa Wright Laura Roberts
Bill Erwin Arthur Biehl
Susan French Older Elise
George Voskovec Dr. Gerard Finney
William H. Macy Critic (as W. H. Macy)
George Wendt Student
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