Fascinating and Not At All Surprising
Exercising can be more effective than anti-depressants for depression.
But where's the money in that?
Fascinating and Not At All Surprising
Exercising can be more effective than anti-depressants for depression.
But where's the money in that?
I Hope So
Reading to your children every night is the best school they will get.
My recommendations for all parents--
Bible Stories (start around age 5). Get a simple version of the Bible - I use the Action Bible
Greek Myths (start around age 8-9). Someone somewhere recommended D'Aulairies
Logging
Film: Suzhou River
Been trying to figure out something to say intelligent about the film. I'd say a good watch for cinephiles, especially those curious about Chinese cinema. The movie is poetic, abstract, at times confusing. But nevertheless the filmmaking technique feels innovative and original and somehow works. Basically, the cameraman starts off as a character in the film disappears (and you barely notice) only to reappear later. Great acting, beautiful camera work. But can't say I'll remember the film nor that the film will create a lasting impact on me. In fact, I give it 50/50 odds I've seen the film before and can't fully remember it all.
Film: Napoleon Dynamite
Never realized this was a kids movie. Makes it better than I remember.
France Announces Palestinian Statehood
Has as much impact as me announcing that I'm a billionaire.
Next France will announce a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Solutions
Real food, go outside, less screens = no obesity for kids (and adults).
A public policy that would help in urban areas is to not let parks, libraries, and other public spaces turn into defacto homeless shelters but of course libtards are too distracted by other issues and concerns to address those matters.
Scary and Retarded
So yeah, if you take this guy at face value, it's pretty weird. But the thing is, he probably works part time at board game shop and his opponent makes millions a year as a "public intellectual." Maybe this guy should debate Peter Thiel or Elon. This would be like watching Bradley Beale in a JV high school game. You could be fooled by watching into thinking Bradley Beale was the best basketball player to ever exist.
Beginnings
The first half of Taxi Driver is about a guy trying to bed a girl way out of his league.
The first 25 minutes of The Equalizer is about a hardware store worker trying to read a bunch of famous books.
The first 25 minutes of Falling Down is about two different guys - one trying to get through his last day on the job without incident and the other trying to make a phone call to his estranged wife.
I think this is what Tony Gilroy means when he says "start small."
Be Careful Out There
Chatgpt made a guy think he found a significant scientific breakthrough.
If I were to teach class on using AI, I would include Her in the syllabus. Also I believe, the Seinfeld episode "Serenity Now" should be mandatory viewing in all schools to teach people to beware of easy solutions to mental problems. Serenity now means insanity later.
Agree
The assessment of Palestine/Palestinians seems to me correct. I don't believe their problems with Israel are uniquely anti-semitic, but are rather political in nature. Or at least they were. No more than Americans in the 1940s were uniquely anti-Japanese. Although, to be fair, the original hostility toward Israel has morphed into what could easily be described as anti-semitism, even if it didn't start that way.
But whatever. The fundamental problem with the Palestinians are refusing to acknowledge their position or to accept their lack of power. I know, they will claims justice, justice, justice. But let me ask this - why do no other communities from this period deserve justice, justice, justice. What of the German citizens who were savaged by the Soviets? What of the Chinese displaced by the Communists? What of all the Eastern Europeans who were similarly "occupied?" To me, it just seems pathological at this point to even care about your great grandparents losing a home. And even if that is wrong, even if you should care, the relevant point is that if you can't actually do anything about it but blow yourselves up or murder random Israelis then it seems like you ought to reconsider your life decisions.
The Game
LA won't let people who lost their homes in the fires rebuild without going through onerous bureaucratic hurdles. Now, they offer to buy the land to put up "low income" housing.
Who knew the Soviet Union reconstituted itself in California. Despicable.
Logging
Film: Sorry, Baby
Positive critical response to this film is a good example of the spread of a negative emotional contagion. The A24-verse can be said to serve this demographic. It's a bit more whimsical and light than other misery porn entries, yet the defining characteristic of the main character is her contemplation of suicide. Where do these suicidal thoughts come from? I don't want to give it all away, but suffice to say, the "incident" didn't merit that reaction, in my opinion. The word snowflake came into my frontal cortex.
The film also lacks structure and hence a climax. It doesn't feel like it builds toward anything. More like a long, flat line.
A good "first film" by any measure and impressive achievement for the writer/director/star, but not a great movie, nor my kind of movie at all.
Did like the academic setting, though.
RFK
Not only normal, but awesome. People giving him shit for taking his family fossil hunting? That's an awesome idea.
Popularity Overrated in Geopolitics
Would you prefer to be in Ukraine or Israel's position? Ukrainians are popular round the world, yet their reality is daily bombardment by an evil enemy who kidnaps their children and wants to brainwash them into being Russian. Their front is a slaughterhouse for their young men. Israel on the other hand is now "unpopular" round the world, but they can sleep at night because their enemies are decimated.
Who would you rather be?
Point is, the only time it was "popular" to be American in my adult life was post-9/11. So take that as you will.
Logging
Film: The Searchers
70mm screening at the Egyptian. One of the great pleasures of living in LA. Packed theater. Amazing crowd. Amazing film. Several impressions - surprisingly funny on this watch, a bunch of romantic slapstick bits. Implication in the film that John Wayne is a crook and a racist. The runtime for such an epic film only about 2 hours. It goes by fast. Very economical storytelling. Really, pretty close to a perfect movie. Music though doesn't age great.
Film: A Quiet Place, Day One
Needed something more from this movie. The family, emotional stuff helps propel the other two. This one needed more relationship situations or some good old fashioned alien killing. It had neither, so it just became internal and meditative without frankly much to say about the characters other than they were experiencing trauma. Relying too much on the cat to generate sympathy.
Logging
Film: Crash (Cronenberg)
So many thoughts on this film...but the main one being - the characters have so much freedom back in 1996 compared to 2025. None of movie feels plausible today because the characters would be far too constrained to do what they do throughout the film. And it isn't the government, but rather work demands, social demands, etc. Fascinating. Haunting.
Social Security
Everyone thinks we've got a crisis with Social Security, but I believe there is a fix. The system was designed and sold as an insurance system, but we gamed it into a pension system. Therefore, rich people need to give up on some of benefits that turns their retirements into easy living. The system is meant for grandma to have a roof over her head and get groceries, not to fund an inflation protected annuity for those with assets in the 5-25 million range. The true benefactors under this system are the children and charities who will inherit the unspent assets for people with too much dough to spend in their lifetimes. Is that what social security is for?
Code Breaking
People on the internet arguing about Mamdani calling himself an African American on a college application. Let's discuss.
1) Detailed arguments supporting Mamdani inadvertently argue for getting rid of affirmative action. They rest on the point: it's absurd to categorize on race. Exactly.
2) The offended people are American blacks, an important coalition in the Democratic party. Why? Because Mamdani and everyone else damn well knows what African or Black heritage means. (Mamdani is Indian, okay. That counts in our world as Asian, South Asian specifically).
3) The Mamdani gamble/predicament is that the noisiest and most likely to call foul on the claim of his African American heritage are likely to overlap with his pro-Socialist, anti-Western views. Think AOC, Briahna Joy Gray, etc. These people will give him a pass, I'm positive. An interesting political question will be whether this "group" now outweighs the group who might actually be offended - someone like Stephen A Smith, for instance.
4) The worst case scenario is that we are indeed already in a 1984 type of situation where the unwritten "rules" for this type of thing are deliberately opaque so that who possess "power" dictate whether Mamdani broke the rule or didn't break the rule. Very dark, Russian-esque.
Deep Risks
1) Inflation
Combat with: hard assets, inflation protected bonds, value stocks, stocks in general, fixed rate mortgage (negative bond)
2) Deflation
Combat with: cash
3) Confiscation
Combat with: nearly impossible to do, but...Roth IRA? Some might say crypto or foreign real estate
4) Devastation
Combat with: nearly impossible to do, but...community ties in out-of-the-way places? Insurance, if possible?
Many Weird Things
If you were in a coma in the late 1990s and woke up today, one of the weirder things would be to discover that in the Jurassic Park Franchise apparently humans and dinosaurs now live amongst each other?
That factoid alone would suggest something has gone very awry in the world, perhaps even moreso than Donald Trump being President.
Logging
Film: F1
Perfectly enjoyable but not A-plus level. A hair below the joys of Top Gun Maverick. A bit too long. Poker scene was forced. But still lovely to be in a packed theater with gorgeous images and actors and a classic stranger comes to town story.
UPDATE/NOTE: Prior to F1, I hadn't seen a trailer. Was there a trailer? I'd only seen posters and heard of it. Meaning I went in with no sense of the story whatsoever. It got me thinking - maybe this is a way to regenerate interest in films - tell us less about them. Then we actually have a reason to go. Often, trailers tell us waaaaay too much. Just give us vibes. Brad Pitt, car racing. I'm in. No need to tell us more. So even though this story was familiar, I didn't mind it. Don't give us so many hints about the story...just let us vibe.
UPDATE/NOTE 2: Is there anything to be made of Joseph Kosinski's mother being from French-Canada, same as Denis Villeneuve, the two biggest and best studio filmmakers out there right now?
What To Do With Dumb People?
Genuinely difficult question. Our answer over the past 25 years or so seems to be: let them feel smart by letting them into college and make "learning" easier.
The result: far left and far right become pseudo intellectual morons who want to drag the world down. It was so much better when they did blue collar jobs, drank beer, and rooted for sports teams.
America
Still remains a mysterious place to me.
"People are pouring baby oil over one another"
"It's not RICO, it's freak-o"
Maybe movies are having a hard time because real life so magical.
Logging
Film: Love Hurts
More interested in "being a movie" than reflecting life or human existence. The tone doesn't totally work. Ke Huy Quan does a Jackie Chan impersonation. He's not terrible but also isn't Jackie Chan. I wonder if the casting sheet for one the characters read simply: he drinks a lot of Boba. Still, I watched the whole thing.
TV: The Day of the Jackal
Terrible end of the season "twist," undermined the entire show. Reminds one of how cheap and pointless television can be.
Did anyone watch this show? I've never heard a soul talk about it. I go online. Rotten Tomatoes very vague - don't even show numbers. Then go onto IMDB - over 100k ratings. So someone watched.
But I can't find anything intelligent written about the show on a brief perusal of the internet. Maybe I'll check chatgpt.