Alex Miller, Author at Alex's Asteroid Astrology

October 16th, 2024 at 10:20am by Alex Miller

Young Frankenstein: Still Golden at Fifty

The fiftieth anniversary of the release of Mel Brook’s comedy horror classic “Young Frankenstein” is fast approaching. Premiering on December 15, 1974, to take advantage of the holiday moviegoing crush, it seems more appropriate to me to honor this milestone during Spooky Season, even if there are more laughs than chills in Brooks’ version of the 1818 Mary Shelley novel. To be fair, Brooks’ riff on the theme has less to do with Shelley’s gothic tale and more to do with parodying the five Universal Studios productions that far preceded it. “YF” was shot in black and white in homage to Brook’s boyhood reminiscences of seeing those films, and utilized contemporary 1930s scene change camera techniques from that era; many “mad scientist” stage props created for the 1931 original were recycled for “YF”’s own laboratory scenes.

October 10th, 2024 at 09:22am by Alex Miller

Garden Glimpses: Red October

Many gardeners bemoan the approach of autumn, as signaling the end of the growing season and the withdrawal of color from the landscape. But color is everywhere in October, from the vivid leaves in woody stretches to the farmstands overflowing with pumpkins and gourds in every conceivable shape, size and hue. The trick is bringing that amazing color into your backyard!

October 3rd, 2024 at 09:55am by Alex Miller

Death in Triplicate

The recent pairing of Jupiter, the planet ruling fame and celebrity, and asteroid Requiem 2254, named for the funeral mass for the dead, has yielded a fresh crop of autumnal celebrity deaths, much in the way Jupiter’s earlier conjunction with asteroid Lachesis 120, named for the mythic Greek Fate who determines the span of life, depopulated the planet of famous names in mid-summer. Among the recently departed: Dame Maggie Smith, celebrated British actress best known for her work in the Harry Potter movies and PBS’ “Downton Abbey;” Kris Kristofferson, American singer, songwriter and actor; and Pete Rose, American professional baseball player and gambling afficionado.

September 30th, 2024 at 10:29am by Alex Miller

Hurricane Helene

Atlantic storms with PNAs (Personal-Named Asteroids) equating to their designated names, which find these connected to the Sun when they make landfall, often prove to be among the worst, most powerful and destructive hurricanes on record, not to mention the most expensive. Such was the case with Hurricane Irma, which made landfall in Florida on 10 September 2017, with the Sun conjunct asteroid Irma (estimated cost $65 billion); and Hurricane Maria, which made landfall in Puerto Rico ten days later, with asteroid Maria exactly squared the Sun (estimated cost $115 billion). And such is the case now, with Hurricane Helene striking Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane, the largest ever to hit the region, on September 26^th, under a precise conjunction of the Sun with asteroid Helena (with an early estimate of the storm’s damage at $95-110 billion).

September 27th, 2024 at 09:47am by Alex Miller

Porn, Pizza & Politics: The Mark Robinson Saga

Well, Trump and the MAGA GOP base have done it again! In nominating North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson for the Tar Heel State’s top job, they’ve once again picked the most controversial candidate possible, a veritable fount of homophobic, misogynist, antisemitic, Islamophobic, racist statements, a Holocaust denier who called himself “a Black Nazi.” Already trailing Democratic challenger Josh Stein by double digits in most polls, a bevy of new online statements revealed in a CNN report on September 19^th have set Robinson’s campaign into a tailspin, with four key staffers resigning in the aftermath of the story.

September 25th, 2024 at 08:52am by Alex Miller

Aster-Obit: James Earl Jones

Actor James Earl Jones passed away on 9 September 2024, at the age of 93. Jones was a member of the exclusive EGOT club, meaning he had won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award, but ironically, most people know him best from three roles where he never appears on camera: as the voice of Darth Vader in the original “Star Wars” trilogy; the voice of Mufasa in Disney’s animated feature “The Lion King;” and as the voiceover announcer who for decades declaimed the tagline, “This is CNN” at the cable news network’s commercial breaks. It was Jones’ basso profundo vocal range that set him apart from the competition, though his 6’2” height and substantial frame also gave the actor a stage presence and gravitas few could rival.