Charles Monroe Schulz (November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000), nicknamed Sparky, was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip Peanuts (which featured.

PRINCIPAL'S LETTER Winter 2016 Dear Alumnae, Parents and Friends, I am happy to greet you again during another exciting year at The Mary Louis Academy.

Recent Scifi Films That Didn't Need Big Budgets To Be Amazing. Low- budget scifi movies may have had their heyday during Roger Corman’s rise to B- movie greatness in the 1. Here are our favorites from the past few decades.

Another Earth (2. Director Mike Cahill (I Origins) and star Brit Marling (The Sound of My Voice, Netflix’s The OA) co- wrote this tale of guilt, grief, and cosmic second chances. Marling plays a brilliant woman named Rhoda who makes a terrible, tragic mistake: causing a car accident that kills a woman and her unborn child, leaving the woman’s husband, John (William Mapother), physically and mentally devastated. Rhoda makes another terrible mistake when she first tries to set things right, seeking out John but failing to tell him who she really is.

But possible redemption comes from an unlikely place: the “mirror Earth” that looms above—represented by a very simple but effective visual effect—where the people and places are identical to those on our planet, with the key difference being that certain crappy life decisions may never have transpired. John Dies at the End (2. This cult horror- scifi comedy from Don Coscarelli (Bubba Ho- Tep, Phantasm) features quite a few outrageous special effects, as well as a cameo from Paul Giamatti, but it was still made for less than a million bucks.

Based on David Wong’s novel, it’s about a pair of buddies who experience increasingly bizarre hallucinations and circumstances (alternate dimensions, aliens, etc.) when they encounter a new street drug that’s nicknamed “Soy Sauce.” Eventually, the fate of the world hangs in the balance—and along the way, there’s also an evil supercomputer, a heroic dog, and a monster that cobbles itself together from a freezer full of meat. Computer Chess (2. Filmed in black- and- white using period- appropriate video cameras, writer- director Andrew Bujalski’s offbeat and intricate study of a computer chess tournament is set in 1. It was actually made in 2. Authentic nerds (not Hollywood nerds) converge on a bland hotel to determine whose program will achieve chess supremacy, though the backstage dramas and micro- dramas outside the competition provide most of the real interest. Though Computer Chess is mostly an awkward comedy, it ventures into scifi when it begins to suggest that one team’s artificial intelligence software is way, way more self- aware than most anyone realizes or is willing to admit.

It appears that Mr. Newton died and the property passed to Mrs. Newton. She then willed the property to Minot. If I recall, she had other children, whom. Luke Plunkett. Luke Plunkett is a Contributing Editor based in Canberra, Australia. He has written a book on cosplay, designed a game about airplanes, and also runs. You’ve got problems, I’ve got advice. This advice isn’t sugar-coated—in fact, it’s sugar-free, and may even be a little bitter. Welcome to Tough Love. SPACE Gallery is a nonprofit contemporary art space in Portland, MAINE featuring visual arts, live music and performance, film, artists lectures and more. Low-budget scifi movies may have had their heyday during Roger Corman’s rise to B-movie greatness in the 1950s, but they’re still going strong today—proving. Watch Killer Mountain Streaming.

The American Astronaut (2. Another black- and- white entry, The American Astronaut manages to meld the genres of scifi, Western, and musical. Writer- director Cory Mc. Abee, who once described his work as “Buck Rogers meets Roy Rogers,” also plays the title character—an intergalactic cowboy/rare- goods dealer who becomes entangled in a scheme to deliver a man to the all- female planet of Venus (but it gets way more complicated than that)—and his band, the Billy Nayer Show, provided the tunes.

Unsurprisingly, the end result is something completely unique, enhanced by the film’s use of hand- painted, lo- fi special effects in most cases. Monsters (2. 01. 0)Before Gareth Edwards did Godzilla—and then achieved his lifelong dream of making a Star Wars movie with Rogue One—he worked as a digital effects artist and applied those skills to his first feature, Monsters. As the title suggests, it’s a monster movie, but it’s uniquely set in a world where humans and aliens have been co- existing on Earth for a number of years, and while the tension and fear may not have deflated, the novelty has.

Strangers (real- life couple Scoot Mc. Nairy and Whitney Able) team up to re- enter the US from Mexico, but the trip is complicated by a border that has become exponentially more hostile. Edwards, who also wrote the film, did the cinematography, and did the production design, makes the most of a budget that’s just a tiny fraction of what he’d get for his future blockbusters. Robot & Frank (2. Lonely, technology- averse, and intermittently forgetful retiree Frank acquires a companion robot from his well- meaning son, and soon realizes his new sidekick would be the perfect partner in crime, literally. Robot & Frank is a poignant study of aging, but it also does an incredible job making a robot character (and it is a real, developed character) believably blend into its otherwise fairly typical indie- film landscape. A winning cast (most prominently Frank Langella as Frank and Peter Sarsgaard as the voice of the robot, though a different actor actually wears the suit) further elevates this inspired effort from first- time director Jake Schreier and first- time screenwriter Christopher D.

The upcoming Pokémon movie is a re-telling of the Indigo League stories, with two glaring omissions. Jon M. Chu, Director: G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Jon is an alumni of the USC School of Cinema-Television. There, he won the Princess Grace Award, the Dore Schary Award. While we’re waiting for the solar eclipse later on in the month, we’ll be cooling our heels in August hiding out in the air conditioning, and catching up on the.

Ford. 8. Sleep Dealer (2. In Alex Rivera’s thriller, it’s a future in which illegal immigration between Mexico and the US has been completely outlawed (thanks to a border wall..).

However, since the US economy would collapse without a steady stream of people willing to work for nothing, would- be prospective citizens toil in grim factories where they’re physically plugged into virtual reality machines that control robots doing labor stateside. Within this uneasy mix, we meet a man who dreams of hacking into a massive corporation to restore water to his region; a woman who peddles uploaded memories; and a drone pilot who has a crisis of conscience. Sleep Dealer is obviously a politically- minded tale that’s really about globalization, but it also manages to be completely thrilling at the same time. Moon (2. 00. 9)At the very end of a three- year solo stint on the Moon, the man overseeing an automated mining facility (Sam Rockwell)—who has only his AI (voiced by Kevin Spacey) for companionship—realizes he’s not as alone as he once thought. He also starts to suspect that his corporate employers are not as benevolent as he once believed. Director Duncan Jones (Source Code, Warcraft) is working on another film set in the same universe as Moon, called Mute, which will also have scifi elements though it’ll be set on Earth this time; eventually, he hopes to do a third and make it a trilogy.

The Signal (2. 01. College kids on a road trip take a detour to track down their nemesis, a mysterious hacker who lures them to an alien encounter, after which they’re whisked to an apparent government facility that’s experimenting with alien technology.

On humans. Including them. Aside from its imaginative plot, which keeps you guessing until the end (and even then leaves you with a great “Huh?” image), it’s production design that evokes 2. A Space Odyssey and supporting turns by Laurence Fishburne and Lin Shaye that make The Signal especially memorable. Safety Not Guaranteed (2.

Following in the footsteps of Gareth Edwards, director Colin Trevorrow made his feature debut with this budgeted- under- a- million indie before taking on Jurassic World and Star Wars: Episode IX. An intriguing magazine ad seeking a time travel companion (“this is not a joke”) piques the interest of a trio of Seattle journalists (Aubrey Plaza, Jake Johnson, and Karan Soni), who track down the man (Mark Duplass) to see if he’s a nutcase or the real deal—or, as it turns out, kinda both. The script (by Derek Connolly) was inspired by a real (but fake) ad that once ran in Backwoods Home Magazine, a fact which helps ground the film’s quirkiness—as do its performances (Plaza is perfect) and its portrayal of time travel as something ordinary people might explore for their own deeply personal reasons. And yes, there are Star Wars jokes. The One I Love (2. Yep, another one with Mark Duplass.

Charles M. Schulz - Wikipedia. Charles Monroe Schulz (November 2. February 1. 2, 2.

Sparky, was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip Peanuts (which featured the characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy, among others). He is widely regarded as one of the most influential cartoonists of all time, cited as a major influence by many later cartoonists, including Bill Watterson (creator of Calvin and Hobbes) and Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons). Early life and education[edit]. Schulz's high school yearbook photo, 1.

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota,[3] Schulz grew up in Saint Paul. He was the only child of Carl Schulz, who was born in Germany, and Dena Halverson, who had Norwegian heritage.[4] His uncle called him "Sparky" after the horse Spark Plug in Billy De. Beck's comic strip, Barney Google.[5]Schulz loved drawing and sometimes drew his family dog, Spike, who ate unusual things, such as pins and tacks.

In 1. 93. 7, Schulz drew a picture of Spike and sent it to Ripley's Believe It or Not!; his drawing appeared in Robert Ripley's syndicated panel, captioned, "A hunting dog that eats pins, tacks, and razor blades is owned by C. F. Schulz, St. Paul, Minn." and "Drawn by 'Sparky'"[6] (C. F. was his father, Carl Fred Schulz).[7]Schulz attended Richards Gordon Elementary School in Saint Paul, where he skipped two half- grades.

He became a shy, timid teenager, perhaps as a result of being the youngest in his class at Central High School. One well- known episode in his high school life was the rejection of his drawings by his high school yearbook, which he referred to in Peanuts years later, when he had Lucy ask Charlie Brown to sign a picture he drew of a horse, only to then say it was a prank.[8] A five- foot- tall statue of Snoopy was placed in the school's main office 6.

Military service and post- war jobs[edit]In February 1. Schulz's mother Dena died after a long illness. At the time of her death, he had only recently been made aware that she suffered from cancer. Schulz had by all accounts been very close to his mother and her death made a strong impression on him.[9]Around the same time, Schulz was drafted into the United States Army.

He served as a staff sergeant with the 2. Armored Division in Europe, as a squad leader on a . His unit saw combat only at the very end of the war.

Schulz said that he only had one opportunity to fire his machine gun but forgot to load it. Fortunately, he said, the German soldier he could have fired at willingly surrendered. Years later, Schulz proudly spoke of his wartime service.[1.

After being discharged in late 1. Schulz returned to Minneapolis. He did lettering for a Roman Catholic comic magazine, Timeless Topix, and then, in July 1.

Art Instruction, Inc., reviewing and grading lessons submitted by students.[1. Schulz himself had been a student of the school, taking a correspondence course from it before he was drafted. He worked at the school for a number of years while he developed his career as a comic creator until he was making enough money from comics to be able to do that full- time. Schulz's first group of regular cartoons, a weekly series of one- panel jokes entitled Li'l Folks, was published from June 1.

January 1. 95. 0 in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, with Schulz usually doing four one- panel drawings per issue. It was in Li'l Folks that Schulz first used the name Charlie Brown for a character, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys as well as one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In May 1. 94. 8, Schulz sold his first one- panel drawing to The Saturday Evening Post; within the next two years, a total of 1. Schulz were published in the Post,[1. St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Around the same time, he tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association; Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1. Li'l Folks was dropped from the Pioneer Press in January 1. Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with the one- panel series Li'l Folks, and the syndicate became interested. However, by that time Schulz had also developed a comic strip, using normally four panels rather than one, and reportedly to Schulz's delight, the syndicate preferred this version.

Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1. The weekly Sunday- page debuted on January 6, 1. After a somewhat slow beginning, Peanuts eventually became one of the most popular comic strips of all time, as well as one of the most influential. Schulz also had a short- lived sports- oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1. Peanuts. From 1. 95. Young Pillars") featuring teenagers to Youth, a publication associated with the Church of God. In 1. 95. 7 and 1.

Art Linkletter's Kids Say the Darndest Things,[1. Dear President Johnson, by Bill Adler.[1. Peanuts[edit]At its height, Peanuts was published daily in 2,6.

Over the nearly 5. Peanuts was published, Schulz drew nearly 1. The strips themselves, plus merchandise and product endorsements, produced revenues of more than $1 billion per year, with Schulz earning an estimated $3. During the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five- week break in late 1.

Schulz was alive. The first book collection of Peanuts strips was published in July 1. Rinehart & Company. Many more books followed, and these collections greatly contributed to the increasing popularity of the strip.

In 2. 00. 4, Fantagraphics began their Complete Peanuts series. Peanuts also proved popular in other media; the first animated TV special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, aired in December 1. Emmy award. Numerous TV specials were to follow, the latest being Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown in 2. Until his death, Schulz wrote or co- wrote the TV specials and carefully oversaw production of them. Charlie Brown, the principal character for Peanuts, was named after a co- worker at the Art Instruction Inc. Schulz drew much more inspiration than this from his own life, some examples being: Like Charlie Brown's parents, Schulz's father was a barber and his mother a housewife. Schulz admitted in interviews that, like Charlie Brown, he had often felt shy and withdrawn in his life. Watch Malena Online Malena Full Movie Online.

In an interview with Charlie Rose in May 1. Schulz observed, "I suppose there’s a melancholy feeling in a lot of cartoonists, because cartooning, like all other humor, comes from bad things happening."[1. Schulz reportedly had an intelligent dog when he was a boy. Although this dog was a pointer, and not a beagle as was Snoopy, family photos of the dog confirm a certain physical resemblance.

References to Snoopy's brother Spike living outside of Needles, California, were likely influenced by the few years (1. Schulz family lived there; they had moved to Needles to join other family members who had relocated from Minnesota to tend to an ill cousin.[1.

Schulz's inspiration for Charlie Brown's unrequited love to the Little Red- Haired Girl was Donna Mae Johnson, an Art Instruction Inc. When Schulz finally proposed to her in June 1. Linus and Shermy were named for his good friends Linus Maurer and Sherman Plepler, respectively.[1. Peppermint Patty was inspired by Patricia Swanson, one of his cousins on his mother's side.

Schulz devised the character's name when he saw peppermint candies in his house.[1. Influences[edit]The Charles M.

Schulz Museum counts Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates) and Bill Mauldin as key influences on Schulz's work.