Okay, Then...

10 books to read before one dies. 

Funny, I'm not sure how I would approach a list of movies...but here goes...

1) Casablanca (alt: His Girl Friday)

2) Psycho (alt: Rear Window or Vertigo)

3) Wizard of Oz (alt: Gone with the Wind)

4) The General (alt: Modern Times, Sunrise)

5) 400 Blows (alt: Bicycle Thieves)

6) Seven Samurai (no alt)

7) Pulp Fiction (no alt)

8) The Godfather (alt: Goodfellas or Chinatown)

9) Star Wars (alt: 2001, Terminator 2)

10) Lawrence of Arabia (alt: The Searchers, Shane)

An Important Thing To Remember

It can always get worse. 

No One Is Coming To The Rescue

The adults are gone. WGA staff strike against the WGA union and the union prez sends an email that sounds like she borrowed from the AMPTP template.

Meanwhile, the BAFTA awards ceremony situation...hard not to find the whole thing funny.

And I just attended a Slamdance screening. Great film but afterwards they had someone doing sign language to the audience. Is this a thing now for all film festivals? Do they check if anyone in the audience even needs sign language? What is the average audience size of these screenings? I'm so confused.

A Lying Communist Cocksucker

Mamdani knows damn well that wasn't a "snowball fight." He lies through his teeth because that is how communists take and exercise power.

Plastic Grocery Bag Ban

When they did it, I wonder if anyone considered the possibility of heavy rain and what it does to paper bags.

Logging

Film: Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai 

Got halfway through last night. Never enjoyed the film as much as I felt I was supposed to. Here's why - when I was younger, I expected a samurai action film, which it is not. It's an indy dramedy and understood in that context, considerably better...

TV: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms S1

Excluding the flashback episode, the runtime for the show I would guess is about 2 hours and 10 minutes which suggests to me a different format than television...

Anyone Else Find It Kinda Weird

How the Iranian protestors were just massacred and memory-holed. Why did the opposite thing happen with Gaza? Someone help me understand.

This Was Always My Concern With Trump

He's worked himself into a corner with Iran. 

I don't know what he expected. That a show of force would make religious fanatics capitulate to demands. Is he kidding? These people want death. 

Yikes

Jia Zhangke's AI short film. 

Most everyone can write, but great writers make it sing. Seems the future will be the same for AI video or whatever you want to call these things...

Eileen Gu

When you understand her father doesn't exist in her life, the rest makes sense. 

Logging

Book: Shakespeare Stories by Leon Garfield

A book of the Bard's plays in short story form for kids, but written in the style of Shakespeare with quotes from the plays, etc. An excellent read to familiarize oneself with the stories so that readers may later experience the plays. Thus far, read MacBeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Twelfth Night with the kids...and indeed the last one demonstrates why Shakespeare is "the best" - how he brings those story threads together is quite remarkable. 

Film: Tombstone

A little more going on with this film than you would think. There's a reason why it continues to resonate. Not as profound as my favorites from the revisionist Western period, but the story is actually a character study of Earp. Val Kilmer alone is worth the price of admission, but consider the actors that appear in the film: Sam Elliot, Kurt Russell, Billy Bob Thorton, Thomas Hayden Church, Bill Paxton...there are others. The one glaring weak spot, Dana Delany...

Film: Carrie

The fairly hot high school gym teacher slaps around students a lot in the film. They mostly deserve it, too. What's great is the "horror" of high school is just as scary as the telekinesis. 

Logging

Film: A Trip To The Moon

More interesting than what I've seen thus far re: AI...

Bluesky

Never been. What's it like? 

Logging

Film: Silverado

Probably the film that caused me to dislike Westerns until I got to film school. I feel like my parents might've dragged me to the theater to see it. Can't say my younger self was wrong. It's the actors that are the problem here - you don't buy them. Something about the 1980s vibes - Kevin Kline? A gunslinger-criminal? Sorry...but no. The other huge aspect of the film that fails - what was the bad guy plot? I seriously came away with no clue about the story at all. Were they just trying to kill Kevin Costner? I am going to need to re-read the plot on Wikipedia. Costner interesting to watch in the film. He hadn't yet figured out his movie star persona, so overacts in a boyish, goofball manner. Funny to see glimpses of what he would become but Kasden wasn't quite able to bring it out. Give credit to Ron Shelton for that. And say all you will about the wokies being idiots, but they have a point about white writers writing for black families that comes across in this film. Danny Glover's scenes and storyline are among the most simplistic and ridiculous that one can imagine. Guess what he suffers from? If you guessed racism, you would be right. They murder his father and his sister is a prostitute. And none of this is played in a fun, wink wink, manner mind you. They take the whole thing very seriously. 

One highlight is Brian Dennehy who offers up some moral complexity in the villain role. He could've held his own in a Peckinpah film.

Logging

TV: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms E5

Nothing worse than a flashback episode... 

Karen Bass

Thinks Wasserman should step down. Ha! Does anyone care that this guy was a little pervy in private? No. Does it matter to anyone? No. Meanwhile, Bass mismanaged the LA fires and lied in the aftermath. Jeez.

Skiing

Such a pain in the ass and still worth it. A single long run on great snow is worth the price of admission. My older son said it was like riding a roller coaster, but you're in control. The secondary benefit: an appreciation of nature and the mountain. Kids learn to become self-sufficient, carry their gear, be prepared for weather shifts, and monitor food and water intake.