I recently watched The Dish, one of several films with this title; the one I watched tells the somewhat-fictionalized story of the role the big radiotelescope dish at Parkes, New South Wales, Australia played during the historic Apollo 11 flight and landing, complete with power outages, high winds, and inconveniently-timed VIP visits.
...And what a role it was! The big dish at Parkes was used for more than telemetry and voice reception; video of the first human footsteps on the moon was received there and relayed to the entire world. The control/receiving room at the dish was meticulously recreated for the film, exteriors were shot at the dish itself, and the wondrously-askew Patrick Warburton plays NASA's man on the scene.
An entertaining film, filled with engaging personalities and a positive attitude. I recommend it.
I and my wife have learned that it is often the movies that are not filled with big money actors and huge budgets, but those made by people who are in love with the art of telling a good story, in a way that engages an audience, with characters who draw you in, because they are like real people, with flaws and goodness, that are the ones worth watching. I don't even mind spending money at the theaters to see good pictures like that. Frankly, I could not imagine spending 30 bucks or so on what is churned out of Hollywood now, with all the special effects and noise, with the so called stars that all look alike, and can't act any better than some of the college performances that I have been to. I find that PBS has often got very good shows on, if you simply have the patience to find them.
ReplyDeletelook up Project Icecube sometime, UW Madison's neutrino telescope in Antartica. Our company built the boards in the Neutrino detectors.
ReplyDeleteSounds very kewl!
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