A Sidewalk Astronomer
I love this movie because I love John Dobson. He is one of my favorite people because he provides people with an authentic experience, and it's free. I have patterned my life after his, in this way.
Also, he's smart and funny, not afraid to be an idealist, and really loves people. When Erik and I met him in Death Valley, he was so nice to us. He asked us where we lived and invited us to his cosmology class in Hollywood, which we attended though the drive was hard, from Orange County.
The movie starts out with John Dobson on a street corner in San Francisco with a telescope, asking people to see the moon. "Come see the moon!" he says. We see a lot of people walk by and a lot of people engage him. He hands them his flier, which is like a zine. Later in the movie, we see him folding them.
Throughout the movie, we hear him talking. He speaks about religion and his time in the monastery and how he got kicked out. He speaks about how he doesn't believe in the big bang and what he believes instead. We see him in different settings, classroom and cafeteria--we see part of his slide show. He says a sentence Erik and I like to repeat to one another from time to time, "DON'T GO TO VENUS!" Erik and I have seen his slide show a few times.
It's a good movie if you are fixated on John Dobson, and it might be a good movie even if you aren't. But I suspect there's both wheat and chaff. I could just listen to him talk forever. But I can see how people could be annoyed by him. For example, he says in the wikipedia article how he invented the Dobsonian telescope mount because he was "too retarded" to do it another way. Erik finds that disingenuous. I find it funny. I mean, he's an old man. In the movie he tells a really offensive joke, but he's an old man. He was born in 1915.
Maybe it talks about religion too much--I mean, he's not preachy, but he does mention the Exterior Decorator a lot.
Also, he's smart and funny, not afraid to be an idealist, and really loves people. When Erik and I met him in Death Valley, he was so nice to us. He asked us where we lived and invited us to his cosmology class in Hollywood, which we attended though the drive was hard, from Orange County.
The movie starts out with John Dobson on a street corner in San Francisco with a telescope, asking people to see the moon. "Come see the moon!" he says. We see a lot of people walk by and a lot of people engage him. He hands them his flier, which is like a zine. Later in the movie, we see him folding them.
Throughout the movie, we hear him talking. He speaks about religion and his time in the monastery and how he got kicked out. He speaks about how he doesn't believe in the big bang and what he believes instead. We see him in different settings, classroom and cafeteria--we see part of his slide show. He says a sentence Erik and I like to repeat to one another from time to time, "DON'T GO TO VENUS!" Erik and I have seen his slide show a few times.
It's a good movie if you are fixated on John Dobson, and it might be a good movie even if you aren't. But I suspect there's both wheat and chaff. I could just listen to him talk forever. But I can see how people could be annoyed by him. For example, he says in the wikipedia article how he invented the Dobsonian telescope mount because he was "too retarded" to do it another way. Erik finds that disingenuous. I find it funny. I mean, he's an old man. In the movie he tells a really offensive joke, but he's an old man. He was born in 1915.
Maybe it talks about religion too much--I mean, he's not preachy, but he does mention the Exterior Decorator a lot.
posted by Laura-Marie @ 1:16 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home