I'm writing from home, off work for the next few days. This afternoon, after I left Pearl's, I drove up to Granada Hills to check on O'Melveny Park. As you go north on Balboa Bl., you get closer to the fire zone, and once you pass Rinaldi you can see how throughly charred the entire hillside is. Mission Peak is burned black. The Three Trees appear to be standing, and I think they are oaks, but no matter how resilient they are, it will be a miracle if they survived the fire. The mountains above Granada Hills got the worst of it, and it looks horrible.
There was a massive traffic jam on Balboa once you passed Jollette Avenue. That is the residential street on which several homes burned down. I imagine that there were street closures around (and maybe including) Jollette, and that a detour was causing the backup, which stretched on out of sight. It had to be at least a mile long. I took other side streets to escape the jam, only to arrive at Sesnon Boulevard, across from O'Melveny Park, and encounter another traffic jam that looked just as bad as the first. It looked like an awful situation for the residents up there.
I found a parking space on a side street adjacent to O'Melveny and walked across, only to discover what I'd more or less been expecting : the parking lot was empty; a sawhorse at the entrance held a sign that read "Park Is Closed". I crossed back over Sesnon, through the endless line of cars, and drove home.
This has got to be the worst fire that has hit the North Valley in recent memory. I know we've had even worse in the West Valley, such as last year's Woolsey Fire which destroyed many more homes and acreage. Woolsey was one of the worst fires in all of California history, let alone the Valley. But as far as the North Valley and the area around the Santa Susana Mountains is concerned, the Saddleridge Fire is the worst in my lifetime.
The websites for O'Melveny and Aliso Canyon Parks say that they are "temporarily" closed. I hope this is true, and that they will not be shut down for years, as was Placerita Canyon.
On my way back from O'Melveny Park, I stopped off at G.Hills Libe to look for movies. They didn't have a great selection of horror, but I did find a few flicks that border on that category. One of them I watched this evening, a movie entitled "UFO" (2018). Ordinarily, I might have passed this movie by, because I don't remember it being in theaters, and it had a straight-to-video look, but interestingly enough I'd heard of it before, and very recently in fact. In "The Rendlesham Enigma", the film was mentioned by co-author Gary Osbourn as having in it's plotline a thread that has to do with a mathematical number called The Fine Structure Constant. Osborn goes into great detail in the book about the importance of the Constant in physics and, really, to the fact that it is a frequency that holds the atomic structure of the Universe together. I'll not go into great detail here. Google the number 137 and see what you get.
I had never heard of The Fine Structure Constant before reading "The Rendlesham Enigma", although in an interesting aside, I had heard a version of that phrase before. If Elizabeth is reading, she will know what I am referring to. Her friend Sarah has (or had) a band called The Fine Constant. They were based in Madison, Wisconsin and Elizabeth knew Sarah for years and has done videos for her. I always thought that band name was an intriguing one, but past that, I never thought much about it. Now though, after reading "Rendlesham" and learning about the Fine Structure Constant, I see that Sara's band was named after the same thing, only with the word "Structure" removed to make it roll off the tongue more easily.
I don't think Elizabeth reads this blog anymore, but if she does : Hey Elizabeth! I finally "got" Sara's band name. :):) Must be a bunch of math wizards in that group.
And that's what "UFO" the movie is about, the use of the Fine Structure Constant as a means of communication between aliens and human beings. It's a very intelligent film, and though limited by budget and thus having more of a cable movie feel, it is still thoroughly captivating.
A young actor named Alex Sharp stars as a college student at the University of Cincinnati. I must just in here to say that the location was extra cool. My Dad graduated from the U of C in 1946, so it was really neat to be able to see the campus, on which much of the film was shot. Alex Sharp's character is a math genius and also a UFO buff. When a sighting at the Cincinnati airport make the news, Sharp becomes intrigued. There were many witnesses, including employees in the control tower. Being a genius, Sharp knows how to do things like find obscure air traffic websites and look up unlisted cell phone numbers. He locates a recording of a conversation between controllers in the tower who were on shift when the UFO appeared. Then he calls a local anchorman on his cell to report what he has heard, which is clear evidence of a large flying saucer.
Unbeknownst to Sharp, a secret group inside the FBI has also been following not only the airport sighting but also other recent flaps in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area. They are aware that he has used the air traffic control website, and now he is on their radar. Actor David Strahairn plays the head Fed who is now secretly monitoring young Sharp.
Sharp, meanwhile, is incensed when he hears on the news that the whole affair has been dismissed as a case of misidentification. The news anchor is reporting that the FBI has solved the case. It was not a UFO that everyone saw but only a Gulfstream jet.
Sharp becomes so obsessed with proving the sighting that he puts his considerable math skills to work, using trigonometry to work out the size and precise location of where the UFO would have been. In listening to the recording from the control tower, he discovers a previously unnoticed band of interference. He uses a computer program to isolate this sound, and discovers a pattern in the frequency.
This will lead him to conclude, eventually, that it is a communication from the UFO, having to do with The Fine Structure Constant. There is a ton of math in this movie, so you've gotta have your thinking cap on and listen closely. The math is so complex that it finally becomes too difficult for Sharp to solve alone, so he enlists the help of his Professor - Gillian Anderson! Yep, good old Scully herself. True to form, she is a bit skeptical of the whole story, but comes around after Sharp presents all his evidence. They work together to figure out what the Constant could mean, as a message.
Meanwhile, David Strathairn - the Secret FBI Man - is monitoring Sharp's every move, watching him through the camera lens on his home computer. I've gotta step in here to say : "see, I told you so"! Haha. That's why I tape a square of paper over my own computer lenses, lol. I'm not gonna be Skyping with anyone anyway, and I don't want my pals in the FBI mysteriously Skyping me, either! :):)
For some reason, Alex Sharp - genius though he is - never thinks to tape his computer lenses, so Strathairn is able to continue following his progress on the UFO case. This will all come to a head at the end of the movie, but Strathairn may not turn out to be the Evil Secret Agent we think he is.
That why, in my case, I always champion the Feds. I consider them my friends because we're all on the same side in this.......whatever it is, lol. :)
"UFO" is a thought-provoking little movie that is extremely well made. It was written and directed by a guy named Ryan Eslinger, who shows a lot of talent. He moves the complicated story along with the swift pace of a thriller, and without ever bogging you down in the difficult math talk. The nighttime photography on the UC campus is artful, emphasizing the architectural beauty of the buildings. Alex Sharpe and the other young actors who play his fellow students are all good, and the longtimers Strathairn and Anderson add some veteran gravitas.
Two Thumbs Way Up for "UFO", a movie I'd probably never have seen had I not read "The Rendlesham Enigma". This is one movie that, rather than needing to be shortened, could actually have benefited from an extra fifteen minutes of plot development. I won't get into the reason for this, except to say that they could have explored the meaning of The Fine Constant a little further.
That's a minor quibble, however, and I strongly recommend the movie for all viewers, even if you don't believe in UFOs. /////
That is all for now. It's a day off for me, so I may go on a hike if I can find a park that's open. I know Santa Susana is okay, but I may drive to check up on Rice Canyon in Santa Clarita. Or maybe I can find some info on the web before going all the way out there and getting in another traffic jam. In any event, I hope you have a great day. Please keep Jerry Gaskill of King's X in your prayers, as it was announced this morning that he will be undergoing a heart procedure very soon.
Thanks so much, and I will see you tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons and tons of love.
No comments:
Post a Comment