1211 – The Toys That Made Us (TV Series 2017– )

timespace coordinates: (S01) “Star Wars” 1977 – / “Barbie” 1959 – / “He-Man” 1982 – / “G.I. Joe” 1964 – // (S02) “Star Trek” 1966 – / “Transformers” 1983 – / “LEGO” 1949 – / “Hello Kitty” 1960 – //  USA – Japan – Denmark

The Toys That Made Us is an American documentary web television series created by Brian Volk-Weiss. The first four episodes of the series began streaming on Netflix on December 22, 2017, and the next four were released in May 25, 2018.

“The minds behind history’s most iconic toy franchises discuss the rise — and sometimes fall — of their billion-dollar creations.” rottentomatoes

imdb   /   toy culture   /   netflix

1204 – Gris (2018 video game)

Gris is an indie platform-adventure game by Spanish indie developer Nomada Studio and published by Devolver Digital for Nintendo Switch, macOS and Microsoft Windows. The game was released on 13 December 2018. (wiki)

Gris is a hopeful young girl lost in her own world, dealing with a painful experience in her life. Her journey through sorrow is manifested in her dress, which grants new abilities to better navigate her faded reality. As the story unfolds, Gris will grow emotionally and see her world in a different way, revealing new paths to explore using her new abilities.

GRIS is a serene and evocative experience, free of danger, frustration or death. Players will explore a meticulously designed world brought to life with delicate art, detailed animation, and an elegant original score. Through the game light puzzles, platforming sequences, and optional skill-based challenges will reveal themselves as more of Gris’s world becomes accessible. (steam)

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:  OS: Windows 7 or later / Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E6750 (2 * 2660) or equivalent / AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+ (2 * 2600) or equivalent / Memory: 4 GB RAM / Graphics: Geforce GT 430 (1024 MB) / Radeon HD 5570 (1024 MB) / Storage: 4 GB available space

1201 – Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

timespace coordinates: equatorial South America – Iron City – 2563, 300 years after Earth is devastated by a catastrophic interplanetary war known as “The Fall”

Alita: Battle Angel is a 2019 American cyberpunk science fiction action film based on the 1990s Japanese manga series Gunnm (known as Battle Angel Alita in the English translation) by Yukito Kishiro. Directed by Robert Rodriguez, the film is co-produced by James Cameron and written by Cameron and Laeta Kalogridis. Rosa Salazar stars as the titular heroine Alita, an amnesiac cyborg girl who sets out to learn about her destiny after she awakens in a new body with no past memory of who she is. Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley and Keean Johnson also star in supporting roles. \scored by Junkie XL\ (wiki)

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The post-apocalyptic architecture in sci-fi blockbuster Alita: Battle Angel is a diverse fusion of Panama’s vibrant ruins and Hong Kong’s Kowloon Walled City, say its creators. (dezeen)

City of Imagination: Kowloon Walled City 20 Years Later

1176 – The Battle of Chernobyl (2006 documentary)

On April 26, 1986, at 1:24am, a rainbow-colored flame shot 1,000 meters high into the Ukrainian sky. The fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant just exploded. A battle begins in which 500,000 men are engaged throughout the Soviet Union to “liquidate” the radioactivity, build the “sarcophagus“ of the damaged reactor and save the world from a second explosion that would have destroyed half of Europe.

This documentary combines testimonials, unseen original footage and documents to recreate the events of the great battle of Chernobyl day-by-day, as each development unfolded. imdb

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on youtube

1175 – Chernobyl (miniseries 2019)

timespace coordinates: 1986 – 1987 Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic / Soviet Union

(DISTURBING CONTENT)

Chernobyl is a historical drama television miniseries created and written by Craig Mazin and directed by Johan Renck (Stakka Bo). The series a co-production of HBO and Sky UK depicting the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of April 1986 and the unprecedented cleanup efforts that followed. It features an ensemble cast led by Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Emily Watson, and Paul Ritter. The miniseries is based in large part on the recollections of Pripyat locals, as told by Belarusian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich in her book Voices from Chernobyl. (wiki)

historical accuracy

imdb

1174 – Spaceballs (1987)

Spaceballs is a 1987 American comic science fiction film co-written, produced and directed by Mel Brooks. Starring Brooks, Bill Pullman, John Candy and Rick Moranis, the film also features Daphne Zuniga, Dick Van Patten, and the voice of Joan Rivers. In addition to Brooks in a supporting role, the film also features Brooks regulars Dom DeLuise and Rudy De Luca in cameo appearances.

The film’s setting and characters parody the original Star Wars trilogy, as well as other sci-fi franchises including Star Trek, Alien and the Planet of the Apes films. It was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on June 24, 1987, and was met with a mixed reception. It has since become a cult classic on video and one of Brooks’s most popular films. (wiki)

The Millennium Falcon from the Star Wars saga makes a cameo appearance in this movie. Given a close look at the exterior shot of the Space Diner, and it can be spotted parked there among the other space vehicles. George Lucas got a chance to read the screenplay before production began, and loved it so much that he decided to have his special effects company, Industrial Light & Magic, help make this movie. (read more: trivia)

Possible sequel and animated series

imdb

1171 – The Electronic Doppelganger: The Mystery of the Double in the Age of the Internet (Book by Rudolf Steiner / Andreas Neider 1917 – 2016)

“Large temptations will emanate from these machine-animals, produced by people themselves, and it will be the task of a spiritual science that explores the cosmos to ensure all these temptations do not exert any damaging influence on human beings.” —Rudolf Steiner 
In an increasingly digitized world, where both work and play are more and more taking place online and via screens, Rudolf Steiner’s dramatic statements from 1917 appear prophetic. Speaking of “intelligent machines” that would appear in the future, Steiner presents a broad context that illustrates the multitude of challenges human beings will face. If humanity and the Earth are to continue to evolve together with the cosmos, and not be cut off from it entirely, we will need to work consciously and spiritually to create a counterweight to such phenomena.
In the lectures gathered here, edited with commentary and notes by Andreas Neider, Rudolf Steiner addresses a topic that he was never to speak of again–the secret of the geographical, or ahrimanic, Doppelganger. The human nervous system houses an entity that does not belong to its constitution, he states. This is an ahrimanic being that enters the body shortly before birth and leaves at death, providing the basis for all electrical currents needed to process and coordinate sensory perceptions and react to them.
Based on his spiritual research, Steiner discusses this Doppelganger, or double, in the wider context of historic occult events relating to spirits of darkness. Specific brotherhoods seek to keep such knowledge to themselves to exert power and spread materialism. But this knowledge is critical, says Steiner, if the geographical Doppelganger and its challenges are to be understood.

goodreads   /   amazon

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The Computer and the Incarnation of Ahriman

By David B. Black (online)