This past weekend I finished reading this long awaited (by me) novel. Clarke had been working on it for a few years but was unable to complete it before his death due to ill health. He passed it on to another one of my favourite authors, Frederik Pohl, to complete.
I won't go into a full review because doing so would spoil the novel. I'll just say it was a very good read and has all the usual Clarkian elements. Much of it is set in Clarke's adopted home country of Sri Lanka.
My impression was that it was an Arthur C. Clarke story but was written in the style of Frederik Pohl's novels. The characters were perhaps more developed than in most of Clarke's books; that may have also been Pohl's doing.
Happily, Clarke was at least able to see the final manuscript before he passed away earlier this year.
All in all, highly recommended.
It is currently selling for about $20 on amazon.ca so order it now before the Canadian price goes up, or better yet borrow it from you local library like I did.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
CD Review: Roy Orbison - The Soul of Rock and Roll
I'm a big fan of Roy Orbison. He had an amazing singing voice, was a talented song writer, and was a pretty good guitar player. And with his jet black hair and trademark sunglasses, he was cool. If you took the best of Elvis Buddy Holly and combined them, you'd have something close to Roy Orbison.
So when a new Roy Orbison CD compilation came out, I had to get it. The Soul of Rock and Roll is a set of four CDs containing 108 tracks. It covers his entire career, from his first hit Ooby Dooby recorded by his band The Teen Kings (when he was still in his teens) to a recording made two days before his death.
The CDs are roughly in chronological order. You can follow his career from the early rockabilly tunes to Rock and Roll songs to the ballads he became most famous for, and rebirth with the Traveling Wilbury's in the eighties.
The compilation includes most of his major hits spanning from the 1950s to 1980s. It also includes some demo recording and other rarities, some of which were not previously unreleased.
I particularly hearing some of the demos that feature just Roy and his guitar.
On the pros side, the compilation includes almost everything Roy Orbison recorded in one set. There is a generous number of tracks per disc. The tracks are of good quality. It includes a book of almost 100 pages about his life, pictures, and info about each of the tracks.
My only complaint is with the packaging. While it looks nice, it is too big to conveniently carry with you, so you will need some jewel cases or other holder (assuming you don't just rip the tracks to you MP3 player).
It is available from Amazon.
So when a new Roy Orbison CD compilation came out, I had to get it. The Soul of Rock and Roll is a set of four CDs containing 108 tracks. It covers his entire career, from his first hit Ooby Dooby recorded by his band The Teen Kings (when he was still in his teens) to a recording made two days before his death.
The CDs are roughly in chronological order. You can follow his career from the early rockabilly tunes to Rock and Roll songs to the ballads he became most famous for, and rebirth with the Traveling Wilbury's in the eighties.
The compilation includes most of his major hits spanning from the 1950s to 1980s. It also includes some demo recording and other rarities, some of which were not previously unreleased.
I particularly hearing some of the demos that feature just Roy and his guitar.
On the pros side, the compilation includes almost everything Roy Orbison recorded in one set. There is a generous number of tracks per disc. The tracks are of good quality. It includes a book of almost 100 pages about his life, pictures, and info about each of the tracks.
My only complaint is with the packaging. While it looks nice, it is too big to conveniently carry with you, so you will need some jewel cases or other holder (assuming you don't just rip the tracks to you MP3 player).
It is available from Amazon.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Humans, by Robert J. Sawyer
I just read Humans, the second novel in The Neanderthal Parallax trilogy by Robert J. Sawyer. It was just the thing to pass the time flying back from Houston, Texas with a few hours to kill in airports and on airplanes. A few months ago I read Hominids, the first novel in the trilogy.
I won't spoil it for you by revealing any details, but the trilogy is about making contact with a version of Earth in an alternate universe in which Neanderthals, rather than humans, became the dominant species.
Sawyer did his homework when it came to Neanderthals. There is increasing evidence, some of it published since his novel was published, that Neanderthals may have been as intelligent as humans. Sawyer's insight into their possible religious beliefs is an extrapolation based on real evidence from fossils and artifacts. Their possible speech patterns is also backed up by recent computer models based on Neanderthal skulls.
As usual, Sawyer gets in his Canadian content, with some of the action taking place in Canada and several important characters who are Canadian. It also has events taking place in the United States, including New York City and Washington, DC. There is a particularly moving scene at the Vietnam War memorial that Sawyer thinks was one of the best things he's ever written.
I found it a great read. If you are not an SF fan you will likely still enjoy this novel -- like all his books it's not so much about technology or aliens, but about believable characters, interesting situations, and thought-provoking questions. It also has an element of crime mystery too.
The ending was particularly exciting and had a interesting plot twist that caught me off guard.
I'm looking forward to shortly reading the final book in the trilogy, Hybrids.
See also:
I won't spoil it for you by revealing any details, but the trilogy is about making contact with a version of Earth in an alternate universe in which Neanderthals, rather than humans, became the dominant species.
Sawyer did his homework when it came to Neanderthals. There is increasing evidence, some of it published since his novel was published, that Neanderthals may have been as intelligent as humans. Sawyer's insight into their possible religious beliefs is an extrapolation based on real evidence from fossils and artifacts. Their possible speech patterns is also backed up by recent computer models based on Neanderthal skulls.
As usual, Sawyer gets in his Canadian content, with some of the action taking place in Canada and several important characters who are Canadian. It also has events taking place in the United States, including New York City and Washington, DC. There is a particularly moving scene at the Vietnam War memorial that Sawyer thinks was one of the best things he's ever written.
I found it a great read. If you are not an SF fan you will likely still enjoy this novel -- like all his books it's not so much about technology or aliens, but about believable characters, interesting situations, and thought-provoking questions. It also has an element of crime mystery too.
The ending was particularly exciting and had a interesting plot twist that caught me off guard.
I'm looking forward to shortly reading the final book in the trilogy, Hybrids.
See also:
Sunday, August 24, 2008
2008 Olympic Results - Another Way of Looking at the Numbers
The 2008 Summer Olympics are over, and the results are in. The official rankings are weighted by the type and number of medals won, and with that system, the top ten countries were: China, United States, Russia, Britain, Germany, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Italy, France, Ukraine, and Netherlands (the last three were tied).
Canada came in 19th with 18 medals: 3 gold, 9 silver, and 7 bronze.
If you rank countries by the total number of medals won, the results are similar but the United States overtakes China for the number one spot. The rankings are United States, China, Russia, Britain, Australia, Germany, France, South Korea, Ukraine, Italy.
Canada comes in 15th when ranked by number of medals.
But we're a small country. Clearly a large country like China over a billion people has a larger pool of potential athletes to choose from. So how about looking at the medals won per capita? I reworked the rankings by sorting them by number of medals won per millions of population (the full table is at the end of this blog entry).
With this ranking, Bahamas comes in at number one. They won only two medals, but with a tiny population of 331,000 that puts them in first place. Second, not surprisingly, is Jamaica, which won 11 medals with a population of only 2.7 million.
Iceland, with a population of just over three hundred thousand, won a single medal, putting them in third place.
The only larger countries (more than 10 million population) making the top ten list were Australia and Cuba.
How did the big boys, the officially ranked top 10 countries, do?
None of them made the top 10 except Australia which was 6th, coincidentally the same as the official ranking. China is a big loser at 69th place as is the United States at 45th.
Dead last when ranking by population is India, which won only three medals with it's over 1 billion population.
When I started this exercise I had hoped that Canada would come up higher in the rankings. When ranked by population, Canada is 37th, so we don't come up higher in the rankings by population than by medals, although we come out ahead of the big players. At 0.54 medals per million people we're in the same range as many other similarly developed countries.
Canada came in 19th with 18 medals: 3 gold, 9 silver, and 7 bronze.
If you rank countries by the total number of medals won, the results are similar but the United States overtakes China for the number one spot. The rankings are United States, China, Russia, Britain, Australia, Germany, France, South Korea, Ukraine, Italy.
Canada comes in 15th when ranked by number of medals.
But we're a small country. Clearly a large country like China over a billion people has a larger pool of potential athletes to choose from. So how about looking at the medals won per capita? I reworked the rankings by sorting them by number of medals won per millions of population (the full table is at the end of this blog entry).
With this ranking, Bahamas comes in at number one. They won only two medals, but with a tiny population of 331,000 that puts them in first place. Second, not surprisingly, is Jamaica, which won 11 medals with a population of only 2.7 million.
Iceland, with a population of just over three hundred thousand, won a single medal, putting them in third place.
The only larger countries (more than 10 million population) making the top ten list were Australia and Cuba.
How did the big boys, the officially ranked top 10 countries, do?
China 69
United States 45
Russia 38
Britain 27
Germany 39
Australia 6
South Korea 32
Japan 58
Italy 40
France 33
Ukraine 34
Netherlands 23
None of them made the top 10 except Australia which was 6th, coincidentally the same as the official ranking. China is a big loser at 69th place as is the United States at 45th.
Dead last when ranking by population is India, which won only three medals with it's over 1 billion population.
When I started this exercise I had hoped that Canada would come up higher in the rankings. When ranked by population, Canada is 37th, so we don't come up higher in the rankings by population than by medals, although we come out ahead of the big players. At 0.54 medals per million people we're in the same range as many other similarly developed countries.
| Medal Ranking | Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | Population | Medals per Million Capita |
| 56t | Bahamas | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 331000 | 6.04 |
| 13 | Jamaica | 6 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 2714000 | 4.05 |
| 56t | Iceland | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 316252 | 3.16 |
| 37t | Slovenia | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2029000 | 2.46 |
| 6 | Australia | 14 | 15 | 17 | 46 | 21394309 | 2.15 |
| 28t | Cuba | 2 | 11 | 11 | 24 | 11268000 | 2.13 |
| 19t | New Zealand | 3 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 4275100 | 2.11 |
| 19t | Norway | 3 | 5 | 2 | 10 | 4778500 | 2.09 |
| 56t | Lithuania | 0 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 3361100 | 2.08 |
| 56t | Armenia | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 3002000 | 2 |
| 16t | Belarus | 4 | 5 | 10 | 19 | 9690000 | 1.96 |
| 28t | Mongolia | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 2629000 | 1.52 |
| 56t | Trinidad and Tobago | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1333000 | 1.5 |
| 37t | Estonia | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1340600 | 1.49 |
| 19t | Georgia | 3 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 4395000 | 1.37 |
| 37t | Latvia | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2268000 | 1.32 |
| 37t | Bahrain | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 760168 | 1.32 |
| 28t | Denmark | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 5489022 | 1.28 |
| 19t | Slovakia | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 5402273 | 1.11 |
| 56t | Croatia | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4555000 | 1.1 |
| 19t | Hungary | 3 | 5 | 2 | 10 | 10043000 | 1 |
| 10t | Netherlands | 7 | 5 | 4 | 16 | 16445000 | 0.97 |
| 28t | Kazakhstan | 2 | 4 | 7 | 13 | 15422000 | 0.84 |
| 37t | Azerbaijan | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 8467000 | 0.83 |
| 56t | Mauritius | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1262000 | 0.79 |
| 4 | Britain | 19 | 14 | 15 | 48 | 60975000 | 0.79 |
| 28t | Switzerland | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 7637300 | 0.79 |
| 37t | Finland | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5318105 | 0.75 |
| 56t | Ireland | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4422100 | 0.68 |
| 37t | Bulgaria | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7640238 | 0.65 |
| 7 | South Korea | 13 | 10 | 8 | 31 | 48224000 | 0.64 |
| 10t | France | 7 | 16 | 17 | 40 | 64473140 | 0.62 |
| 10t | Ukraine | 7 | 5 | 16 | 28 | 46059306 | 0.61 |
| 19t | Czech Republic | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 10403136 | 0.58 |
| 56t | Sweden | 0 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 9215021 | 0.54 |
| 19t | Canada | 3 | 9 | 6 | 18 | 33354500 | 0.54 |
| 3 | Russia | 24 | 21 | 28 | 73 | 141888900 | 0.51 |
| 5 | Germany | 17 | 10 | 15 | 42 | 82191000 | 0.51 |
| 9 | Italy | 8 | 10 | 10 | 28 | 59619290 | 0.47 |
| 14t | Spain | 5 | 10 | 3 | 18 | 46063000 | 0.39 |
| 56t | Kyrgyzstan | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5317000 | 0.38 |
| 16t | Romania | 4 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 21438000 | 0.37 |
| 14t | Kenya | 5 | 5 | 4 | 14 | 37538000 | 0.37 |
| 2 | United States | 36 | 38 | 36 | 110 | 304943000 | 0.36 |
| 56t | Austria | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 8340924 | 0.36 |
| 56t | Greece | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 11147000 | 0.36 |
| 56t | Serbia | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 9858000 | 0.3 |
| 37t | Zimbabwe | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 13349000 | 0.3 |
| 37t | Panama | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3343000 | 0.3 |
| 56t | Tajikistan | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6736000 | 0.3 |
| 56t | Moldova | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3794000 | 0.26 |
| 19t | Poland | 3 | 6 | 1 | 10 | 38115967 | 0.26 |
| 28t | North Korea | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 23790000 | 0.25 |
| 37t | Uzbekistan | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 27372000 | 0.22 |
| 56t | Singapore | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4588600 | 0.22 |
| 37t | Dominican Republic | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 9760000 | 0.2 |
| 8 | Japan | 9 | 6 | 10 | 25 | 127690000 | 0.2 |
| 37t | Belgium | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 10584534 | 0.19 |
| 37t | Portugal | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 10623000 | 0.19 |
| 56t | Chinese Taipei | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 23000000 | 0.17 |
| 56t | Togo | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6585000 | 0.15 |
| 28t | Argentina | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 40301927 | 0.15 |
| 56t | Israel | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7303000 | 0.14 |
| 37t | Turkey | 1 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 70586256 | 0.11 |
| 37t | Tunisia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10327000 | 0.1 |
| 16t | Ethiopia | 4 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 79221000 | 0.09 |
| 19t | Brazil | 3 | 4 | 8 | 15 | 187529000 | 0.08 |
| 1 | China | 51 | 21 | 28 | 100 | 1325693000 | 0.08 |
| 56t | Ecuador | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 13341000 | 0.07 |
| 56t | Morocco | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 31224000 | 0.06 |
| 28t | Thailand | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 63038247 | 0.06 |
| 56t | Chile | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 16763470 | 0.06 |
| 56t | Algeria | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 33858000 | 0.06 |
| 37t | Cameroon | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 18549000 | 0.05 |
| 56t | Colombia | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 44513090 | 0.04 |
| 56t | Afghanistan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 27145000 | 0.04 |
| 56t | Malaysia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 27170000 | 0.04 |
| 56t | Venezuela | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 27953701 | 0.04 |
| 37t | Iran | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 70495782 | 0.03 |
| 28t | Mexico | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 106682500 | 0.03 |
| 56t | Nigeria | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 148093000 | 0.03 |
| 56t | Sudan | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 38560000 | 0.03 |
| 37t | Indonesia | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 231627000 | 0.02 |
| 56t | South Africa | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 47850700 | 0.02 |
| 56t | Egypt | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 75231000 | 0.01 |
| 56t | Vietnam | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 87375000 | 0.01 |
| 37t | India | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1137087600 | 0 |
Friday, August 22, 2008
Book Review: Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze?
Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? And 114 Other Questions
Penguin Canada 2006
ISBN-10: 0-14-305390-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-14-305390-3
I subscribe to New Scientist, a weekly science magazine similar to Scientific American, but published in the UK. The first thing I do when I receive my weekly issue is turn to the back and check out "The Last Word". This is the part of the magazine where readers write in with questions about science and other readers write in with answers.
Like it's predecessor Does Anything Eat Wasps? this book presents the best of the Last Word column in book form. It presents about 100 questions and answers divided up into categories such as our bodies, plants and animals, and food and drink.
The questions and answers are fascinating. Many of them make you think "that's something I see all the time but never asked why". It's also interesting that not all scientists agree on the answers. Some of the answers are quite humorous, even tongue in cheek And many of them I've never seen answered before.
My criticism with the previous book in the series was that, for some strange reason, they decided to use US measurement units rather than metric, even though New Scientist uses metric units as do most scientists even in the US. Thankfully they didn't continue this practice for Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze, at least in the Penguin Canada edition I read.
The book is highly recommended. Whether you consider yourself scientifically literate or not, you will get a lot out of it, both in the form entertainment and education.
The latest book in the series, How to Fossilize Your Hamster, was recently released and I'm looking forward to reading it once I get hold of a copy.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Star Trek Gets A Facelift
I'm a big fan of Star Trek, especially the original series.
Recently I was thinking, how would the original series hold up against contemporary television shows? The scripts and acting were excellent, and the image quality holds up quite well as it was made on 35mm film. I think there is only one area where it would be lacking and that is the special effects. While spectacular for their time (1966-1969), modern audiences are used to computer generated images (CGI). The original series primarily used models and matte paintings, which limited what could be done.
Maybe someone at Paramount studios had the same thought. In 2006 they began syndication of a new version of the original series that was rendered in high definition with new CGI visual effects. Most of the external space shots of the Enterprise and other ships have been redone, and many bridge viewscreen images have been updated. But the live action has for the most part been left original, other than being cleaned up for high definition.
I recently received a DVD set of season one of the original series as a gift. After viewing the season one episodes I decided to buy season two. It seems that Amazon is no longer stocking the original DVD set, but the digitally enhanced version of season 2 was just released, so I bought that instead.
Overall I like the new version. The DVDs are similar to the original set, but have s few more extras. Apparently this was originally planned to be a hybrid DVD/HD-DVD set but the HD-DVD format was dropped when BluRay won the format wars, so the discs are one-sided but unlabeled as if they should be double-sided.
I was afraid that the new effects would be glaring when interspersed with the old footage, but they're pretty subtle. Take, for example, the episode The Doomsday Machine. There is a shot of the USS Constellation lying damaged in space. You can see some rocks or other debris around it, and in one shot a rock actually bounces off the ship's saucer section. This is something that wasn't feasible in the 1960's when they used models of the ship. (In fact, an interesting piece of trivia about this episode is that the model of the USS Constellation was actually a commercial plastic model kit that the effects team purchased, assembled, and added some damage to. The ship's registration number -- NCC-1017, used the included decals from the Enterprise, NCC-1710, with the numbers rearranged).
The digitally remastered version was controversial among Star Trek fans. Some felt it was tampering with perfection. After viewing a few of the episodes, I like it.
Although it is hard to believe, there are people who have never watched the original series. If the digitally remastered series exposes more people to the show (either on television or by purchasing DVDs) then its a good thing for Star Trek fandom.
So when it comes time for me to buy the season three DVD set, which version will I go for -- the original or enhanced? I think it will be the enhanced version. (That's assuming I buy the third season at all; it's definitely the poorest of the show's three seasons. But then again maybe new special effects can salvage my choice for the worst episode of the series The Lights of Zetar).
You can get the Star Trek DVDs as individual discs, boxed sets for each season, or as a boxed set of all three seasons. It's available from a number of sources such as Best Buy, Future Shop, or on-line from Amazon.
Wikipedia has more on the remastered series under the entry for the original series.
Youtube also has some clips of the new CGI scenes, including some side by side comparisons of the old and new.
Recently I was thinking, how would the original series hold up against contemporary television shows? The scripts and acting were excellent, and the image quality holds up quite well as it was made on 35mm film. I think there is only one area where it would be lacking and that is the special effects. While spectacular for their time (1966-1969), modern audiences are used to computer generated images (CGI). The original series primarily used models and matte paintings, which limited what could be done.
Maybe someone at Paramount studios had the same thought. In 2006 they began syndication of a new version of the original series that was rendered in high definition with new CGI visual effects. Most of the external space shots of the Enterprise and other ships have been redone, and many bridge viewscreen images have been updated. But the live action has for the most part been left original, other than being cleaned up for high definition.
I recently received a DVD set of season one of the original series as a gift. After viewing the season one episodes I decided to buy season two. It seems that Amazon is no longer stocking the original DVD set, but the digitally enhanced version of season 2 was just released, so I bought that instead.
Overall I like the new version. The DVDs are similar to the original set, but have s few more extras. Apparently this was originally planned to be a hybrid DVD/HD-DVD set but the HD-DVD format was dropped when BluRay won the format wars, so the discs are one-sided but unlabeled as if they should be double-sided.
I was afraid that the new effects would be glaring when interspersed with the old footage, but they're pretty subtle. Take, for example, the episode The Doomsday Machine. There is a shot of the USS Constellation lying damaged in space. You can see some rocks or other debris around it, and in one shot a rock actually bounces off the ship's saucer section. This is something that wasn't feasible in the 1960's when they used models of the ship. (In fact, an interesting piece of trivia about this episode is that the model of the USS Constellation was actually a commercial plastic model kit that the effects team purchased, assembled, and added some damage to. The ship's registration number -- NCC-1017, used the included decals from the Enterprise, NCC-1710, with the numbers rearranged).
The digitally remastered version was controversial among Star Trek fans. Some felt it was tampering with perfection. After viewing a few of the episodes, I like it.
Although it is hard to believe, there are people who have never watched the original series. If the digitally remastered series exposes more people to the show (either on television or by purchasing DVDs) then its a good thing for Star Trek fandom.
So when it comes time for me to buy the season three DVD set, which version will I go for -- the original or enhanced? I think it will be the enhanced version. (That's assuming I buy the third season at all; it's definitely the poorest of the show's three seasons. But then again maybe new special effects can salvage my choice for the worst episode of the series The Lights of Zetar).
You can get the Star Trek DVDs as individual discs, boxed sets for each season, or as a boxed set of all three seasons. It's available from a number of sources such as Best Buy, Future Shop, or on-line from Amazon.
Wikipedia has more on the remastered series under the entry for the original series.
Youtube also has some clips of the new CGI scenes, including some side by side comparisons of the old and new.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
The Port Elmsley Drive-in
Are you old enough to remember going to the drive-in theater? Most of the drive-ins have shut down in the last couple of decades. Here in Ottawa there used to be one in the Bayshore area but it was torn down to build the Coliseum multiplex theatre.
Recently this summer we went to the Port Elmsley drive-in. It is located between Smiths Falls and Perth. After 55 years it is still in operation.
The sound comes through your FM radio so you don't have to worry about driving away and ripping out the speaker in the window like the old days. They have a snack bar with drinks, candy, popcorn, fries, burgers, etc. They even show retro drive-in commercials during intermission. The place has a family atmosphere -- the owner gets on the audio to announce the night's movies or even comment on the film during intermission.
The night we went there was a triple bill showing Wall-E, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Hancock. Most of the people there were families with young kids. There is a playground for the kids to enjoy before the movie starts. There was some rain during the second film but it didn't dampen our spirits.
We left after the first two movies because we had an hour drive home and it was just getting too late for us old folks. We had a great time!
If you live in Eastern Ontario, it makes a great outing for a summer evening. Check it out, but get there early if you want a good spot!
The web site is http://www.portelmsleydrivein.com/
Recently this summer we went to the Port Elmsley drive-in. It is located between Smiths Falls and Perth. After 55 years it is still in operation.
The sound comes through your FM radio so you don't have to worry about driving away and ripping out the speaker in the window like the old days. They have a snack bar with drinks, candy, popcorn, fries, burgers, etc. They even show retro drive-in commercials during intermission. The place has a family atmosphere -- the owner gets on the audio to announce the night's movies or even comment on the film during intermission.
The night we went there was a triple bill showing Wall-E, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Hancock. Most of the people there were families with young kids. There is a playground for the kids to enjoy before the movie starts. There was some rain during the second film but it didn't dampen our spirits.
We left after the first two movies because we had an hour drive home and it was just getting too late for us old folks. We had a great time!
If you live in Eastern Ontario, it makes a great outing for a summer evening. Check it out, but get there early if you want a good spot!
The web site is http://www.portelmsleydrivein.com/
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