Top 19 Media About Time Travel

or

If you are ever bedridden, here are somethings to do.

Only slightly in order. And just some quick thoughts -- not long winded reviews.

Primer (movie) Great Movie so minimal and washed out. Love the idea that business uses technology just to make money- see how the Porn industry has driven our top tech inventions. Like VHS, DVD, Internet.

Donnie Darko (movie) Love the 80’s sound track and remember Frank is just trying to help you – maybe. I Love how time travel is always blamed on symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia.

12 Monkeys (movie) One of Brad’s top 5 performances. Love how Brad and Bruce have possible symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia.

Time Bandits (movie) Why does there have to be evil? Supreme Being: I think it has something to do with free will. Look, do you want to be leader of this gang? No, we agreed: No leader! Right. So shut up and do as I say..

Rant – An Oral Biography (Book) Can’t give anything away, so I’ll just say this is a delightful story, just like all of Chuck’s books, if you are a twisted soul. A quick read I finished in only 3 months, with time travel factored in.

Does Groundhog Day count? (Movie) I had groundhog for breakfast! I like to see a man of advancing years throwing caution to the wind. It's inspiring in a way.

The Butterfly Effect (movie) one of the only movies with Ashton I can watch…. Plus it goes with A Sound Of Thunder (see below).

A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury (Short Story) The movie sucked, but I love the idea of changing history by stepping on a bug. Some rich business men pay big money to hunt a T-rex. Trivia Ray actually didn’t coin the phrase “butterfly effect” though; it was an MIT dude in the 80’s

The Simpsons episode "Time and Punishment" which was part of Season 6's Tree house of Horror V. The spoof of the short story above. Later stolen to make the butterfly effect.

Time After Time (movie) My name is H.G. Wells. I came here in a time machine of my own construction. I am pursuing Jack the Ripper, who escaped into the future in my machine. One of those movies you saw 50 times because it was the summer you got HBO.

Timeline by Michael Creighton (book) Movie sucked. Book makes sense though, you know if you suspend disbelief.

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (movie) High school movie to watch over and over and over.
Back to the Future 2 and 1 (movies) I really like the second one when Biff uses his time travel to make money. But the popular answer is the first one.

Terminator 2 and 1 (movies) He was right, he did come back.

Planet of the Apes (movie) Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape! You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

Lost (TV) who doesn’t love this show freckles? Think of how so many of us thought they were dead and in purgatory.

Peabody's Improbable History (TV) Talking dog historian/time traveler, Mr. Peabody and his pet boy Sherman. The two would jump into their time machine called "The way back machine". Getting up at 5:30 as a kid to watch the Lone Ranger and this was on after it. With Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Once in a Lifetime by the Talking Heads (Song) 1980 “…and you may tell yourself. This is not my beautiful house! And you may tell yourself .This is not my beautiful wife!”

Time Splitter 2000 (PS2) I know it is an old game but its one of the few I have played- as referenced in my Blog Unstuck in Time. I am cheap and only have old games.

Time Machine by HG Wells (Book) was published in 1895. Are you kidding me?! The Island Of Dr. Moreau, War of the Worlds The Invisible Man. HG Wells was a true Futurist.

And finally a poem:

A mammoth, frozen

in Siberian tundra

for twice 10,000 years
Is exhumed at last.

Embedded in the right tusk:

a tracking device

-- Keith Allen Daniels

The Problem With Being Unstuck in Time

- Or -

It’s not cool until I say it’s cool.

Sometimes I feel like I am Billy Pilgrim in Slaughter House Five, or Desmond (from LOST) in “The Constant” episode. I seem to have problems with slipping around in time. Sometimes I’m in the future. Mostly I’m in the past, mostly, and many times I hear Tyler Durden telling me “This is the greatest moment of your life and you’re off somewhere missing it. Stay focused on the moment, don’t think about other things just enjoy the moment.” How often am I in the present, not thinking about what happened today or what I will do later, just enjoying right now? I digress.

This week I have been obsessed with the White Stripes. I listened to them for the first time a couple weeks ago. Now of course I’d heard them years ago… and changed the station, but I never really listened to them before. The song was Blue Orchid – wow, soooo good -- then I listened to Seven Nation Army. Also awesome. I even created a crush for Meg. I know, I know they have been around since the late 90’s but to me they are a brand new band, because I just slid back to that year for a week. I didn’t really listen to Nirvana until their MTV Unplugged CD was playing at my friend Pat’s house in 1997. Kurt wasn’t even alive any more. You see, I spent several weeks crashing at Pat’s house in Tucson, not knowing he had no TV until I got there. I remember in 2001 I was living in the 1990’s and discovered Paul Oakenfold and electronica music. That was an amazing summer. Of course my wife says I am not time traveling but rather I never listen to FM radio or new music or her. True. I have a closed loop for music, kind of like the Amish and breeding.

The best part is I ALWAYS say I don’t like things that I have never actually heard, tasted or seen, just because the masses think it’s cool. I used to think that started when I was in high school when Joe, Pat, Mickey, Brian and I were punk rock guys. I loved to hate everything people loved. I was totally different and unique, exactly like my friends were. However I realized I had been doing it years before. I remember telling my friend Jay Penny in middle school that I didn’t want to go with him to see U2 at Red Rocks. Yes. In 1983. I have spoken to 14,000 people that went to that concert and, yes, it holds just under 10,000. It’s just like how I have met at least 40 people now that were with Darent Williams the night he was shot and died. I am sure he had a big posse that NYE, but I don’t actually know that many cool people that he would have hung out with. Anyway, I didn’t want to go to the concert because I thought he was talking about the B52’s which were popular, therefore I didn’t like them. I know in 1987 at college I always listened to them and proclaimed they were the best.

The same can also be said for TV and movies. I finally watched Weeds, season 1, this summer. Loved it! Welcome to 2005. I started watching the Wire (one of the best shows ever made) when season 3 started in 2004. When I make it back to 2004 I can finally start Battlestar Galactica -- I’ve heard it’s good. Just thinking of the irony of watching Donnie Darko three years after it was out and thinking “I used to love this INXS song” when it was big in the 8o’s. That is some real time traveling.

I just finished the last episode ever of “The Shield”. Yes, I am currently living in November 2008. Wow!! That’s all I can say. The end is so perfect and soooo disturbing it would be wrong to describe it… it really must be experienced. I was going to post the trauma I suffered from watching this… but I will save that for another digression.

This Christmas I was stuck in 2001, My wife bought me one of those hats that looks like a snow hat but it has a bill on it. I LOVE this hat. I remember when they came out and I said ‘I hate those hats, and those dumb kids that think they are sooo cool wearing them.” Two years ago I was in 2002, where I bought cargo pants for work. I love them, so I bought 4 pairs. Just like the hats with the bill, I hated them until that then. Too many kids wearing them…and why do they need so many pockets? I don’t need so many pockets. Heck I figured while I was there I might as well buy some skateboard shoes too. I wear them every chance I can. Now I am trying to buy a black leather jacket for spring as long as I land in any year from 1980 – 1999. Unfortunately for me, my wife acts as Doc Brown as I go backwards in time, preventing me from buying anything that might change the future. Therefore I am not allowed to buy a leather jacket because she says they are “out”. Hello McFly??? Anybody home!! I guess she may be part Biff too. Of course my wife would say I’m no time traveler it’s just that by the time clothes are 75% off on the clearance rack at Target I am finally willing to buy them.

When I think about it, I have never experienced electronics in the present. I am always a year or more behind. I would never think of buying a new computer in the $1500 range with whatever is new and great. What do I need 4 gigs of ram for? That would explain why I have never played a video game in the present, only the past. I would never consider buying a blue ray until they are two years old. What do I need 1080 dpi for? I would never buy a blackberry, what do I need to check email on the road for? I almost bought a PS3 the day the came out … but they were 600 bucks. I can still use my PS2. Plus when I jump back two years, a year from now, I will be able to buy it for a quarter of the price. I would never buy a brand new, on-the-market video game. I can wait a year and get it for half price. Sure this means I play Madden football when the players have already been traded or retired, and it’s on a Sega, but I am still enjoying it. I am an expert of all sports players and the team they were on 3 years ago.

Of course my wife says she can explain my time traveling and there is a logical scientific explanation for all this… I am extremely cheap!!