Rules of Thumb
1. Spend more time doing a sport than watching sports.
2. Order extra dishes (usually appetizers). Cost: a little extra money, potential benefit: discovery of a dish you'll eat forever.
3. Drink less alcohol as you get older
4. If you only have time for tv episodes, just watch a movie over multiple days
5. If you find a pair of pants you like, buy an extra pair in a different color immediately
6. Always be practicing
Logging
Film: Avatar: The Way of Water
Perhaps my expectations were low, but I sort of enjoyed it. Especially when I compare it against the other 3D previews of various Marvel and DC fare...
I guess it felt a bit like a rehash of other Cameron films, but is that such a bad thing?
My subtextual readings of the film - have kids - lots of them. Learn to swim. And Americans of a certain age will never get past Vietnam.
Logging
Film: Tar
Mixed feelings. Overall, a solid film but probably not a rewatch. Depends a lot on how one contextualizes it. In comparison to Memoria - much more captivating. I quite enjoyed the weird paranoia and creepy Michael Haneke thriller aspects. As an anti-PC, cancel culture diatribe...eh. It's okay, maybe a bit snobby. I feel like the appropriate response to the PC stuff is mockery, not an erudite lecture. As a hang out movie? Total fail. I feel like the people in Tar are types I'd dedicate my life to avoiding, so spending 2.5 hours with them over the course of the last two nights does feel like a waste.
I didn't understand the last shot, but I'll remember it.
My list of movies of the year is slowly picking up. Tar will be on there, but near the bottom.
Homelessness
Read something the other day that simplified things for me. Homelessness corresponds to one simple factor: housing cost/scarcity. There's simple data to demonstrate, but I lost the link. So...I guess when the economy booms at a faster pace than we can build, this homelessness is inevitable.
San Francisco
In the last 5 days, these things happened.
Legacy of Gavin Newsom and George Gascon. And yet Democrats keep electing these guys. We're insane.
China Protests / World Cup
So the World Cup triggered these protests, right? These regular Chinese folks just broke when they saw the entire world (not the West, not America - the WORLD) just partying and watching soccer and living life and they just threw up their likes like "what in the actual fuck?" Amiright?
This brings me back to a thing I keep hearing and it keeps annoying me: the Americans who were feigning guilt about the corruption of Qatar and Fifa, etc. The same types who said they'd leave the United States if George W Bush got reelected, that would leave the US if Donald Trump got elected, and now threatened to - GASP - not watch the World Cup because of Qatar's corruption, the dead building workers, the homophobia of the country (I guess Americans don't realize there are 1 billion Muslims who basically share in this belief along with hundreds of millions of Christians, and Hindu's - so we should what? Refuse to talk to them?)
Here's news for those people: Qatar is a country with a population about the size of the Westside of Los Angeles. It is a tiny spec of dust that matters in terms of global affairs not one single IOTA!
Fifa is corrupt, of course! Is it that much more corrupt than the NCAA? Do I hear any of these people protesting college football every single goddamn weekend of the fall? No.
And let me remind these folks of the last two settings of the World Cup and Olympics - Russia and China - arguably the two most corrupt, autocratic, and most importantly - significant countries in the world. China has locked up in prison more Uighurs than the entire population of Qatar.
My point: get some FUCKING perspective here people.
And I'm not saying I - or anyone - could've predicted the World Cup would lead to a protest movement in China - but it has. And this protest movement might end up being one of the most significant events of our century. On the scale of "what matters" the situation in China is like a Blue Whale whereas Qatar's sloppy construction practices is equivalent to an ant.
US Soccer
Scrubs some element of the Iranian flag on social media. And in other news, a 45 year old US diplomat will be starting at left back in the World Cup game.
"The West"
We are troubled. We struggle to deter a diminished superpower like Russia from a military invasion. We can't seem to have elections without major controversies. We have a hard time playing a soccer tournament without it becoming a social-political statement. Shit...I go into a Starbucks line and witness people trying to order coffee nowadays and it seems as complex as brain surgery. Maybe something has become broken in our minds...I'm serious about this coffee thing...today a guy in front of me was trying to order four coffee drinks, finds out the Starbucks doesn't have cookies and cream something or other, so he needs to do a phone call and explain the situation to someone (presumably his wife), they have a debate/discussion before he is able to order another drink. I think we need computer assistance to keep track of these coffee choices for each and every person. Why does everyone have such complex coffee orders? "I want a light agave macadamia nut iced latte, but if they don't have macadamia nut, I'll have almond milk, but in that case, no agave...etc." Ad nauseum. The only thing worse than Starbucks are fancy ice cream shops giving out samples. People will wait in line 30 minutes these days to pay $8 for a cone of ice cream.
Happy Thanksgiving. I give thanks for the World Cup and the US of A despite all my moaning.
SF
Elections Commissioner Cynthia Dai, who voted to not renew Arntz’s contract, said there was no performance-based reason for the commission’s decision. She did not dispute that San Francisco has run free, fair and functional elections for 20 years. Rather, she says, it was time to open up this position to a more diverse field; the city, she said, could not make progress on its racial equity goals without opening up its top positions.
When you start speaking and thinking in delusions, the real world consequences are soon to follow. White guy fired for being white. This is evil.
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Film: Prey
If you can get past the fact the lead actress seems like a Filipino girl from an LA suburb rather than a Comanche warrior from the 1700s, the movie gets better as it goes along.
TV: White Lotus S2
The characters having the most fun in the show are the two whores.
I like Mike White's generational commentary. His older characters are flawed but self aware and trying to improve themselves and perhaps even the world. His younger characters are flawed, judgmental, and totally clueless about their own nature. The middle aged folks are pack animals preying upon each other for status. For season 3, I would pitch introducing kids under the age of 10.
Effective Altruism
So the idea was to "help" using other people's money. There's another word for this...
Scary thing here. Guy threw up the warning signals that SBF was a fraud and people in the halls of power refused to listen. They wanted to introduce this crypto money laundering scheme into the "regular" financial system. They wanted to launder this BS into 401k's, crop prices, and I'm sure mortgages and shit.
Jesus.
A Lot of Girls Going Trans...
Before committing oneself to a gender change, a person (and their parents) ought to read and explain Nietzsche's concept of ressentiment and Freud's bits about compassionate narcissists. Might be a lower cost way to help folks figure themselves out.
And from the article, a giant red flag you might be doing something you regret is if you're flying to Miami for medical treatment.
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Film: The Secrets in Their Eyes (2015)
This remake reminds of the scenes in the tv show Barry where Henry Winkler's acting class perform scenes of great movies...except it's an entire film with Nicole Kidman, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Julia Roberts doing the cheap imitation.
It's remarkable how nearly every choice in this film is wrong. The filmmakers pay ode to a ton of minor meaningless details from the original and take a hacksaw to the essential parts. No-joke, this is like George Costanza doing the opposite of what a good filmmaker would do.
This might be my #1 most-hated film of all time because of how much I like the original. It's like the defacing of a great painting. I cannot fathom why anyone involved did this...did they understand the original film? Did they watch it? It feels like a bad high school student watched the original and decided to rewrite the entire thing set in America.
I need not go on.
Incentives
So SF will now pay you to be transgender... That's an odd one I didn't see coming but makes a certain sort of sense to a certain sort of world view.
Anti-Racism
Blacks and Hispanics agree with antisemitic sentiments at similar levels to alt-right white folks.
Prediction: anti-racism efforts in the long run are going to impact POC communities the worst. Riddle that one.
Everything Wrong With NPR...
In one short article about Dave Chappelle "disappointing" on SNL.
As I said in my review, Chappelle seems to think he's above criticism; for him, race seems to trump all.
It's funny coming from NPR - a public-funded "news" organization that has been systemically obsessed with race for 3 years - to offer this critique of Chappelle. The author doesn't seem to be able to distinguish between an artist and their voice and a news organization with a "mission." Chappelle's "job" isn't to offer balanced political perspectives -- that's NPR's job! His job is to make us laugh - which he does - and yet, he also manages to make us think.
I'm against obsessing over race as anyone - when it comes from academics, institutions, and mid-level bureaucrats when it comes to public and private policy. But if it comes from a comedian? An artist? Obsess over race all you want if you find it interesting. I have the option to not listen or turn away.
God what a world we live in. People are so freaking confused.
NBA Player Radio Silence
There's only one way to interpret NBA player radio silence on Kyrie's antisemitic instagram post. The players don't actually give a flying shit about racism - only anti-black racism. Good luck building a lasting political coalition to achieve any progress with that approach...
Interesting Take From Joy Reid
People are only using the word "inflation" because they've been taught it by Republicans.
She prefers the term: shit costs more.
Fake News
In 2017 the NYTimes made a top down decision to go negative on Facebook.
I suppose they were just responding to their readership, but let's not pretend these folks are pursuing the truth.
Department of Homeland Security
Was created to prevent Islamic Terrorist attacks on the US. Now, they are manipulating social media platforms for "disinfo"? Why? We never signed up for this. Looks like all the critics of the Homeland security were right in the first place. It sounded absurd in 2002 to be concerned the US government would spy on its own citizens. In 2022, not so much.
Lab Leak Theory
Just want to remind all, I've been pro lab leak theory since 2021.
Now, a Senate committee and Vanity Fair are reporting on more evidence for the lab leak theory.
As I said before, the cover up and initial reaction to COVID is the reveal. With zoonotic origins, China would've been gotten the word out sooner. If they had nothing to hide, they wouldn't have hidden it.
Why We Must Read Great Books
David Brooks writes about rising global emotional inequality. He ponders why in India and China there is rising unhappiness despite rising wealth. Here's the thing - rising wealth means rising wealth inequality. And rising inequality means rising unhappiness. This is what's known as irony. And only those who read and can well observe the world can comprehend such contradictions.
The dum dum reaction is to censor the books that acknowledge such things in favor of books that validate their wrong assumptions.
No Trust
I already don't have high trust for doctors or mental health professionals, but it's only going to get worse.
Have people figured out that "social justice" and DEI in the workplace is just a method to disguise mediocrity?
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TV: House of the Dragon S1 Finale
I have several problems with the show, despite wanting to watch it. Dramatically I'm unsure how the filmmakers want us to feel about the characters and factions. Simply put, are we supposed to be on team Rhaenyra or team Alicent? The filmmakers seem ambivalent. With GoT, our sympathies clearly lie with Stark vs Lannister although they manage to complicate these feelings later on in the show.
The book Fire & Blood is written like an academic history of Westeros and my critique is such a POV doesn't play as effectively as a TV drama. The show tries to disguise itself as a TV show when in fact, the source material is actually fake non-fiction.
My other problem is with how the show handles these situations of childbirth. My question is why? These scenes have minuscule dramatic impact. Pure cringe.
Logging
Film: Triangle of Sadness
Enjoyed going to theater, but felt the film opted for a message and theme at the expense of human behavior. And by that I mean, I accuse the filmmaker of making the characters behave in ways inorganic to their nature in order to make an abstract point.
And I guess I expect Palm d'Or level films to rise above thematic cliches such as rich people suck, but perhaps that's foolish of me.
Film: The Banshees of Inisherin
I yearned to be more blown away.
Faulty Assumptions
Here are the faulty assumptions:
1) We can build "affordable housing." The houses aren't affordable. They are extremely costly to the taxpayer (600K plus).
2) The homeless should get to live in LA communities. Venice beach is some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Why would we build services for homeless in this area? It's an absolutely beyond insane use of resources.
I have the solution. Permanent Burning Man in the Nevada desert. How much will it cost per person. Not 600K, but the price of a single bus ticket to Nevada. There, all the homeless activists will be employed to build toilets, housing, and provide free drugs and music and art installations to entertain the homeless. This will solve multiple problems at once - get rid of the homeless, get rid of the homeless activists, and let all of them live their American dream of doing jack shit.
Thoughts on NBA Players 2022
Kahwi - he is my favorite player to watch. Underrated intelligence, a feel for the moment, can make brilliant plays on both ends, a good shooter that can score at all levels. Physical beast. Just too bad he's always hurt.
CP3 - he's on my fantasy team and tbh, I'm very worried this is the year father time catches up.
LeBron - I'm not worried about father time for this guy. I wish he were a better shooter from deep. I wish he had better players around him, although this is largely his own fault. He's a tremendous passer, but any arguments for GOAT status need to reconcile the fact the Warriors owned him for the entire 2nd half of his career.
Draymond - not out of the question this guy finds himself in jail at some point in his life. I find him super irritating and an overrated defender. He matches up well against larger players, but faster players like Kahwi or Pascal Siakam or even Robert Williams render him a liability. Good passer though for a big man. Obviously a critical piece for the Warriors, he toughens them up.
Kyrie - love watching him play, but wouldn't want him on my team.
Westbrook - oooffff.
AD - when he's cooking, he makes it look easy.
Steph - most innovative player in my lifetime. A winner and team leader at Jordan, Magic, Bird level. Impossible to say anything bad about the guy. Flaw is defensive prowess, but makes up for it with intelligence, and gravitational impact on the other end.
Michael Porter Jr. - a very difficult player for me to watch, the guy seems like he can't even dribble. But he's 6'10" with a brilliant, smooth stroke. And the bad back at his age. I just don't know. Can you imagine LeBron passing to him wide open instead of Westbrook and Pat Bev? Good lord.
Joker - maybe my second favorite player to watch. Incredible durability and efficiency. Completely unique. Greatest 2nd round draft pick in history of NBA, right?
Trey Jones - seems a little small and slow to my eye on first impression, but we'll see...
Devin Vassel - eye test looks good at moments, but in past seems like he disappears. Hard for me to tell.
Luka - tough, uses big body incredibly well. Great skill, but a tad overrated as a shooter. Complains too much, but might have a really good team around him this year.
Ayton - looks like he could be Hakeemish, but isn't. Bad hands. Bad feel for the moment. Looks like a big guy who can stay healthy, his movements are smooth. Better shooter than you could think. But doesn't seem to block a lot of shots or get as many rebounds as he should.
Zinger - great shot blocker, but bad rebounder. Has a smooth stroke, but shoots a poorer percentage than you'd like. Feels to me like not quite a winning player, but capable of putting up the most insane fantasy stat lines.
TBC
Logging
Film: The Lion King, 1994
I prefer the play it was based on.
Book: Fire and Blood
The chapters related to House of the Dragon. One of my favorite characters in the GRRM universe is Mushroom.
Film: The Outfit
Felt like a play. Might've been better as a play. Wonder if it was written as a play.
A number of people have recommended this film to me -- I was a bit negative on it overall. Didn't like the supporting cast at all. And I found it a bit predictable...
Agree With This 100%
Could use more cop types as teachers and more teacher types as cops.
"Diversity" as we use it now actually encourages conformity in terms of personality types. Authoritarians of all races gravitate to conservative institutions like police forces and neurotics gather in liberal institutions like schools.
Brilliant
Toward the end, an analysis of how maritime powers defeat continental powers.
The proper comparison is not US vs. China in terms of military, population, size of economy. The proper comparison is:
US/Japan/Europe/India/Vietnam/Philippines/Taiwan/Indonesia/Australia/New Zealand vs. China
Changes your perspective.
Proposal on Taiwan
So here would be my counter. Were China to take Taiwan either by force or some type of Hong Kong type of diplomatic/economic scenario, the US should offer a fast-tracked citizenship program to any Taiwanese who wants to leave and become part of the United States. Taiwan is a country of 23 million people. We could make plans to relocate up to 10 million of them split between Honolulu, Stockton, Sacramento, and the Bay Area. All the best Taiwanese companies and executives would be invited.
Let's get started on setting up more Ding Tai Fungs and the welcome wagon. California public schools would suddenly become at least middle of the pack in the country in one fell swoop.
Psychos
Oil protesters throw soup at Van Gogh painting.
Only a spoiled, disaffected child could come up with such an idea.
Sorry Folks, But This is Creepy and Psychotic
Stanford doctor in their own words about underage transgender surgeries.
The next part where is where she transitions into how complex (and expensive these surgeries) are and why insurance companies and the government should pay (her) to do them.
These surgeons have become the annuity salesmen of their generation.
LA City Council
Notice how the lunatic uber white progressive homeless advocate who represents the westside on the city council has maneuvered himself into the victim of racism. Quite the magic trick.
Dave Chappelle tried to warn us.
Better Essays
One of the better essays of the year, pointing out 2022 might be the year Fukuyama was proven correct.
Interesting data point I hadn't heard before: the poorest per capita Chinese people in the world live in China. Point being: Ethnic Chinese are more successful in every other country/system they go to than China. Perhaps one could argue the rich and talented leave, but maybe that tells you all you need to know about the Chinese system.
Also, this: autocracies lie about their economic growth by a study of lights at night. Quite an elegant study.
Logging
Film: Blonde
First 25 minutes or so. I'll probably watch this film in the same manner I'm reading Love and Fate. Slowly and over the course of months.
Play: Hamlet
Reading Shakespeare aloud makes it 40-60% more comprehensible.
And another thought: Too bad Shakespeare is a dead white male and thus being deemphasized in schools. I imagine if might help students with mental health problems seeing how the 16th century prince dealt with it. Maybe it might make them feel less alone and more connected to humanity at large.
Meloni In Italy
Watched a snippit of her speech...compelling stuff...but got this weird feeling that it was too elegant, too well argued, and strange she quoted GK Chesterton. And then I find out she regularly talks with Steve Bannon. Strange world we live in. America exports both wokeness and its reaction. Strong evidence for the "we are living in a simulation" theory.
Logging
Film: Elvis
Enjoyed, particularly Butler as Elvis. But maybe not a memorable film story that I'll go back to.
TV: House of the Dragon S1 E6
Still not great yet I really enjoy watching. This coming from someone who has literally read all the books, so I guess I'm a GRRM fanboy? Whereas I would basically recommend Game of Thrones the show to anyone...and recommend the books to anyone who likes fantasy, or the show, etc...I probably would not recommend HOTD to anyone but the large sized fans of the Westeros world. For instance, my wife got into GOT, but couldn't make it through 1.5 episodes of HOTD. Anyhow, the show isn't a disaster and has recovered since E1-2.
Film: No Time to Die
Haven't yet finished, but I feel a professional obligation to watch all the James Bond films. One of worst trends in movie storytelling these days - a presumption the audience knows, cares, or remembers what happened in the prior film. Who is responsible for this nonsense? Even Top Gun Maverick had a bit of this - like our audience actually remembers the "Penny" character reference from the first film, ie the Jennifer Connelly character? With Top Gun at least this comes across as almost like an absurd joke, but in watching Bond (and MCU) and other things, I feel like these filmmakers really think the audience follows what happened before. Maybe some of them do. I certainly do not.
Logging
Film: Stray Dog
Incredible. First act slowest part, but setting up character's internal conflict pays major dividends down the road. And Takashi Shimura might be a top ten all timer for me.
TV: House of the Dragon E5
Show is really growing on me.
Book: Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
Love the digressions into Cliff Booth's (and others) assessments of the movies of their time. I hope there is some young QT out there watching present movies with a similar passion and sensibility, although I'm pretty sure he's a true one of a kind.
Epic Troll
DeSantis sends a plane load of migrants to Martha's Vineyards. I think we need a lot more of this. In LA, the homeless encampments should be moved outside the Mayor's house and the houses of the city counsel members like Ramen, Bonin, etc who endlessly advocate for "unhoused" resources and oppose any attempts to clear housing encampments. Let them live with the consequences of their policies.
Longer Story...
But Medicaid dental insurance now pays for 3 check ups a year for kids under 6 which is better than my paid for dental insurance. How I know this is a longer story, but suffice to say our policy makers now believe the people for who I (the taxpayer) pay dental insurance for (the poor) deserve better dental care than those who pay for their own insurance. To point this out will offend liberal minded peoples, but if you need me to explain why this is unstable and unsustainable, I don't know what to say. But maybe start with this: I don't have much hope for curing things like "systemic racism" if there's a large part of our population who can't figure out how to brush their kids teeth twice a day.
Nuremberg Trials
There's gonna be a Nuremberg Trials one day about the professional cartels who moved vulnerable children into puberty blockers and gender reassignment. And then you'll see all those who work with kids removing their he/she pronouns from email signatures and lying about their tacit participation. And I hope this effort will be lead by the sane adults in the trans community who exist.
The Great Renaming Extravaganza
While we rename schools and streets for old racists, somehow the Tisch family - who made money in tobacco - still has their name on a cancer institute in NYC. This is the game behind the game being played - corrupt billionaires distracting the masses from the way they made/make money by having us focus our anger at a bunch of dead guys.
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Article: The Man Who Knew Too Much
Later became the film The Insider. Quote:
Snuff was a critical product for B&W, Wigand said, because it is “start-up stuff for kids.… It was Sandefur’s baby. You have to look at the age somebody starts smoking. If you don’t get them before they are 18 or 20, you never get them.” (Thomas Sandefur declined to make any comment for this article.)
Question: did all those same types who used to go work in Big Tobacco just start working for Big Pharma?
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TV: House of the Dragon Ep 2-3
I find myself wanting to watch more, whilst knowing it won't be very good. Characters don't seem very well sketched. I'm thrown off by the timeline. I find some of the moves rather predictable (but perhaps because I read the book years ago).
The public discussions regarding the casting and "wokeness" strike me as a smokescreen for the more interesting creative choices of the show. Do we buy there were black people in Valyeria? Why not? I can't find the energy to care very much one way or the other in these fantasy epics. Yet, I know what the "racists" are getting at: the shows are simply meeting the artificial diversity quotas imposed by the guilds and studios - so suggesting these are "creative" choices are a bit of a stretch. What I find somewhat interesting is that the "right" thing to do these days is make the fantasy worlds reflect the racial realities or woke rules of 2022, but in the case of HOTD, they are very deferential to the sexual politics of courtship of Westeros where a 50+ widowed king and a prepubescent 9 year old girl could be going on an internet walking date. The subtextual realities of our times bubble up to the surface - right wingers secretly letting their inner racists out while the left wingers let out their inner groomer.
Student Debt Reduction
If it fails in court, I propose an alternative:
An open fund where all individuals who feel debt should be relieved may contribute any amount of their own personal money to the cause. That money then will be apportioned to those making below 125K a year. I would even argue there ought to be some type of matching program where more an individual contributes to their own debt reduction, the more matching funds they receive. All paid for by the "majority" of Americans who support debt relief.
I would put up some money for this for two reasons: 1) Despite my policy opinions, I am sympathetic to students with debt 2) It would be sensible policy to allow people to put their money where their mouths are rather than create more perverse incentives for the people in power to hijack money from those out of power.
California
My gut instinct is that the state functioned mostly well through the 1990s from the massive investments in infrastructure and education from the 40s-60s. There are obvious exceptions, particularly the LAPD, but the state as a whole worked. But now? Total and complete dysfunction. We have politicians who all "believe" in global warming, promote electric cars, and yet, none of them can think two steps ahead and update and reinforce our electrical grid? To the point where we are supposed to cut back on AC and not charge cars during this massive heat wave? What is the point of being an environmentalist if you have no plan for dealing with such the weather changes? We have a huge number of politicians who want to shut down - I believe - our last nuclear power plant. And somehow Gavin Newsom made the one good decision of his tenure to keep it open because he realized - shit, the grid going out isn't gonna be good for my Presidential nomination.
But this is a pattern far beyond just this grid thing. We are in the midst of a huge drought. And we are canceling plans to build a desalination plant?
We are experiencing major forest fires year after year because we can't manage the forests.
We can't build housing to make living affordable because we can't build the infrastructure to make it possible for people to travel to and from work in a reasonable time.
We can't educate our students because the unions and schools don't care (and we have low standards). I mean, when I was growing up, it was common to see public school teachers who had attended UC Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, places like that. Is anyone seeing this in our public schools right now?
I dunno man, something has broke in the brains of people here. We've always had kooks. They used to mind their business and want to be left alone to smoke weed, surf, or go to Dead shows and sell burritos. Now, these people run for public office. They teach grade school. They are on the city council. They make COVID policy. We let the inmates control the asylum.
Logging
Film: Blackhat
Probably the worst Michael Mann film and I still prefer to rewatch over any MCU movie. I remember liking and defending the movie when it came out because there are parts that are memorable - the set pieces, in particular. But the casting in the film is off. Hemsworth seems to be playing some weird amalgam of Val Kilmer and DeNiro from Heat with hacking skills. And the first act has no flow or rhythm. The scenes just jump into each other. It's odd. Also, the 3rd act conceit of Hemsworth going it alone feels beyond implausible. But still...I fully plan to rewatch the directors cut at some point.
Film: Coda
The film grew on me. And I love, love, love the Academy voting for it for best picture. It was a completely subversive, fuck you move from within the Academy to the toxic combination of people now employed in the town - the strange bedfellows of the business school MBAs/careerists who are in tenuous alliance with the woke sociopaths. It was a call for help from within the house of sappy old movie lovers who were like: look, this is how you make a Hollywood movie. We are going to need a lot more of this type of political rebellion to make Hollywood great again.
TV: Selling the OC
Never again.
Conspiracies Around 2020 Election
So, I'm pretty sure there are two demonstrable conspiracies that tipped the 2020 election away from Trump:
1) Democrats pressuring Pfizer to delay the announcement of vaccine readiness by needing "more testing" to post-election.
2) The FBI telling Facebook to censor election related information such as the Hunter Biden laptop story that would cast shade on - in this case - Joe Biden
But the weirdest irony of all - Trump contested the election using WORSE and UNTRUE arguments about voting machines and dumping ballots and all the rest. His instincts about the establishment corrupting our systems against him were correct, but his facts and evidence and understanding of those systems were incorrect.
And yet, to me, the system was somewhat vindicated in their actions by how far Trump took his election denial.
Student Loan Forgiveness / Badness
1) It will increase inflation
2) It is unfair to those who paid off loans before or didn't take loans to begin with
3) It is regressive - and mostly helps stressed out 20-somethings who will be able to pay these things off on their own, but just don't want to.
4) It perpetuates the problem of students taking on too much debt
5) It perpetuates the problem of increasing tuition costs
6) It creates a moral hazard and will encourage others to take loans in the future
7) It is terribly expensive and will increase our national debt
It's a straight out bribe to a core democratic constituency and it's this time of thing that causes societies to collapse.
Maybe Why We Ought to Study Art...
Because it helps explain contradictory beliefs that are nevertheless coherent--
Because all of this is simultaneously true:
In the past, casting White actors as obviously Asian characters or Native American characters was pretty ludicrous and punctured our ability to suspend disbelief.
We are making a similar mistake today by every show and movie having a diversity mandate, so Black characters pop up in premodern England, every show features a gay romance, and Pam Anderson had an Asian friend (no way).
And yet, I'm excited about James Franco playing Che Guevara and Ana De Armas playing Marilyn Monroe.
Weed and Psychedelic Use Soars For Young People
You may thank all those who favored legalization, by which I mean just about everyone I know.
We vastly underestimate the impact of what I'd call popular non-socially conservative policy reforms such as drug legalization, gay marriage, and sports betting. We operate under a presumption that anyone who makes these choices are all consenting, mature adults able to make their own decisions. But what in fact is happening: our society is sending a signal of approval for these behaviors, all of which will have major unintended consequences.
Student Loan Debt Cancellation
Anyone want to bet on there being an increase in 10K student loan applications for next year?
In related news, when the electric F150 became eligible for a tax rebate of $7500, Ford promptly increased the price of their electric F150 by $7500.
Great job, government.
My 2004 Self
I wonder what my 2004 self would be more surprised by:
1) In 2022 there will be a large swath of people who "identify" as a different sex and normal, everyday Americans will regard this as normal and not a psychological disorder.
or
2) In 2022, emotional support animals will be allowed in workplaces, on airplanes, and in classrooms - so in effect, people basically bring their pets everywhere.
or
3) In 2022, Ben Affleck and JLo would just be tying the knot.
Logging
Film: The Outlaws
Solid South Korean cop and robbers flick - watched mostly to get Don Lee vibes.
Film: Top Gun
Unquestionably better than the sequel, as enjoyable as the sequel is. Actual real emotion - a strong love story. And wonderful supporting cast.
TV: House of the Dragon Pilot
First 30 minutes were rough. Really rough. Wanted to turn off the show during the c-section treated as action set piece. Got more interesting in the 2nd half. Like the faces of some of the cast. But it's fairly obvious to me from this early stage - has completely lost the best parts of GoT - the surprising plot twists, the uplifting character moments (and score), and the wit in dialog scenes. But they managed to keep the superficial elements of gore, nudity, and white hair...
Film: Coda
First 30 minutes or so. Decent stuff, but hardly best picture material. Feels like a scream for help from within the Academy.
Film: Drunken Master 2
First 30 minutes or so. Pleasurable action set pieces, but with much of the Hong Kong Jackie Chan films I find myself wanting to like the movies more than I actually do.
Film: Karate Kid
Only the wax on and wax off sequence. But a brilliant sequence it is.
Starbucks
While I'm generally pro-union, these Starbucks employees don't really pass the smell test.
The staff, made up of mainly college students, reached out to the corporation multiple times to bargain but have yet to hear back.
And then there's the old problem of what economists call substitutes. The fact that I can brew my own coffee for about .15 a cup instead of paying more than $3 for a cup.
Sorry kids, I think this is the wrong fight.
Oh My God
This is remarkable. She is saying nothing. Literally nothing. Meaningless word vomit. This is a Monty Python sketch. Or a joke uttered by a 4 year old. Anyone heard a 4 year old tell a joke? They're brilliant. They understand how a joke has a form, but miss the details and meaning. So they say, "What do you call a feather and a donkey mixed together?" "What?" "A dum-dum." Hahaha. They find it funny and they are proud of themselves because they mimicked what adults and older kids can do.
The only weird part about this: it comes from our actual Vice President. And the thing it mimics is a leadership speech. Good god.
Logging
Film: High and Low
My feeling is Kurosawa might've watched Pickpocket and said, "Hold my beer."
Good lord, this catapulted into easily my top 50 and I could see it going higher if I ever get to see on a big screen. Most certainly falls into the category of - how the fuck hadn't I seen it before. Let's just say, Memories of Murder, Zodiac, the Onion Field, and the newest Robert Pattison's The Batman owe the film a debt of gratitude.
Gifted and Talented
In 25 years when you die in the next pandemic because we couldn't invent a vaccine quick enough, you can thank all the people who want to scrap Gifted and Talented programs because of equity issues.
“We need to teach all students, including those students who may not be gifted in math, but may be talented in art,” says Mr. McLean, president of Community Education Council 16 in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. “We have to make sure that we’re tapping into all of those things.”
Why do I have the feeling these gifted art students aren't going to be updating the mRNA vaccines?
Yep
There is nothing better we could do for equity and social justice in education than to convince schools to use effective reading instruction methods even if teachers find them tedious.
Teachers don't like teaching phonics even though it helps teach kids to read. So...they don't teach phonics. Downside to all the smart women getting careers is that society used to have a ton of overqualified, really smart teachers and now...less so. But on the upside, there are a lot of dual income households making more than 400k a year!
Glendale Central Library
A beautiful library that could be on a college campus. I heard they had a 3D printer, so I took my aspiring scientist boy there today only to find out they indeed have a 3D printer but no staff trained to work it right now. No one trained.
But somehow they managed a huge art exhibit showcasing (what else) anti-colonialism art. They also seem very well staffed with dozens of female librarians who, from what I can tell, have spent a great deal of time reorganizing all the displays to feature endless books with POC characters and anti-racist themes.
Also - outside this same library, there are probably 20 or so homeless or close to homeless middle aged men just sitting around in the shade doing jack shit.
This is what it feels like to live in Blue America right now. Could not one of these homeless joes be trained on how to work a 3D printer and help people? Of course not. Could nobody in this library take any initiative to work a goddamn technology they possess so they might teach a curious young boy (and his dad) how to work this fascinating new technology? What are we even doing anymore in this country?
Logging
Film: Nope
Pretty dope movie.
TV: F Boy Island S2
Gavin Newsom would fit right in on this show. Too bad it didn't exist before his political career and we're stuck with him making laws.
Book: Dream Hoarders by Richard Reeves
The subtitle explains all: "How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It"
I'm predisposed to believing in the thesis, but after reading the majority of the book remain less-convinced by the author's arguments. Maybe I will expand in a larger post.
New Pronouns Or Maybe Not
For the non-conforming, their gender seems to be both of paramount importance and not important at all.
Burning Books
Yep, the social progressives are burning books.
Notice all the people involved in the story are women.
Interesting Piece
Friedman calls Pelosi's visit to Taiwan utterly reckless. He makes good arguments, the central of which is that the Ukraine war is not won. My POV of the world is that China deterrence is our #1 priority, not winning Ukraine war, and so under this context, I kinda sorta like Pelosi's visit as a vague reminder the US is still an alpha dog. Could it backfire? Sure. But it's the first ballsy thing I remember a Democratic politician doing in a long ass time.
Democrats
Are funding Republican election deniers to make the Republicans seem more radical.
So when they wonder why moderate and independents hate them -- maybe, once again, they ought to look in the mirror.
And this: …Moderna executives expressed confidence they could hit the enrollment targets without significantly slowing down overall enrollment. But Fauci and Slaoui said they actually wanted Moderna to slow down overall enrollment in order to ensure they enrolled more minorities.The book estimates the delay here at three weeks — how many lives was that in winter of 2020/2021?
Separately, just imagine if all the resources from DEI efforts went into teaching reading at grade level. The problem for DEI people: teaching kids to read is hard and requires effort and discipline they do not have. And does not provide an outlet for their own emotional shortcomings.
Oh Yeah, Covid
One of the best articles I've read on COVID, explaining where we are.
“Those who get through it will probably actually have then seen the virus, maybe 10 or 15 times over the next five years,” he says. But each exposure, vaccination or boost does add to the tool kit and makes the risks of future infections less scary — one reason a recent small-scale social-media panic about possible heightened risk from second infections is so misplaced.
Does this mean we're either getting COVID or vaccinated 10-15 more times each?
A Candidate For Changing the World
More than autonomous vehicles or the metaverse, I could see a new world built around a lot of remote work and electric bicycles. I mean, e bikes are here already, affordable, and could actually improve two major urban problems right away: parking and traffic. Why is no one talking about this? Why is this technology not being promoted more? Why aren't cities giving away electric bikes for folks who give up owning cars? Seriously...
Wildlife Rescue
My son is at a camp at a wildlife center where they rescue animals. Some can never return to the wild. My son learned there is a quail who thinks he's a human because as an egg it was taken away from the mom and nurtured by a person. So this quail cannot survive in the wild.
Lucky for the quail, our medical establishment hasn't gotten ahold of him and put him under the knife to change him into a human. I think he's better off as a delusional quail.
It Wasn't Donald Trumps Fault
In case anyone cares: the FDA bought 1 million monkey pox vaccines from Denmark, but can't bother to cut any red tape and so while people are getting sick and dying, the vaccines are sitting in storage.
And in other news, they are doing nothing to speed along a new vaccine that would help with omi - the actual variant that is spreading.
To anyone paying attention, it's become clear for a long while now our public health authorities are asleep at the wheel and letting Americans get sick and die due to their sloth.
Logging
TV: We Own This City
Felt like the longest 6 episode TV series in the history of man. David Simon's greatest power is casting original looking middle aged white dudes.
Book: Cut to the Chase
Screenwriting book.
Book: Charlotte's Web
With my kid. Summer read.
Book: Autobiography of Ulysses S Grant
One of my favorite Americans of all time.
Play: Richard III
One chapter/act a night or so...I can't understand half the language, yet still enjoyable. Someone needs to explain that to me.
Scripts: Samples from Erin Brockovich, Argo, Social Network, and Breaking Bad
Surprise, surprise, they are all really good.
Piers Morgan - Macy Grey
A polite, rational conversation. Who thought it possible anymore!
Buddy cop ideas:
1) Rajon Rondo - Alex Smith
2) Piers Morgan - Macy Grey
Macy has a great line, "I'll call you what you want to be called because it's polite, but just because you have a surgery doesn't make you a woman." I kinda think she solved it right there.
Explain This
Here's a decent NY Times article talking about how both the Left and Right are trying to "erase" or "not count" women.
Here's how the author describes the difference:
The right’s position here is the better known, the movement having aggressively dedicated itself to stripping women of fundamental rights for decades. Thanks in part to two Supreme Court justices who have been credibly accused of abusive behavior toward women, Roe v. Wade, nearly 50 years a target, has been ruthlessly overturned.
Vs.
The noble intent behind omitting the word “women” is to make room for the relatively tiny number of transgender men and people identifying as nonbinary who retain aspects of female biological function and can conceive, give birth or breastfeed. But despite a spirit of inclusion, the result has been to shove women to the side.
Do ya notice the difference? The Right wants to strip women of fundamental rights. The Left has noble intent, but unintended consequences. Really? This is our discourse now? We just assume the Right has nefarious motives - not even going to mention the debate about when life begins? And then with respect to the Left - why should we assume noble intent? It's been pretty obvious for a long time there are great swaths of the far Left who want to tear down anything that functions. This is why a lot of "environmentalists" block efforts for clean, abundant energy because what they really want is to impose an anti-consumerist ethos on everyone. It's why some homeless activists basically enable drug addicts to commit suicide in slow motion on our city streets and why some elements of the progressive Left want to Abolish the Police. These are people who want our society to commit suicide. Why assume these motives are noble?
This Should Freak Us All Out
Google says it will delete all search history for visiting abortion clinics.
Which implies, it has and does keep our search history for everything else under the sun and uses it for unknown purposes.
Anyone Else Notice This?
A peculiar trait amongst liberals to act powerless when in fact they possess a great deal of power?
In the wake of the Roe ruling, we have Biden's speech, Kamala's lamentations, Nancy Pelosi reading a poem about the lousiness of our country, and AOC calling the decision illegitimate. Bear in mind, we are talking here about the President of the US, the VP, the Speaker, and a Senator with the largest bully pulpit of them all. In other words, four of the most powerful people in the country (and world) - none of who are particularly new at this. And all they need to do is the job they applied for: pass laws.
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Novel: The Butcher's Boy
Up there with Higgins, Leonard, Winslow - not quite in the same category, but close. Great ending. But for some reason took me awhile to finish. I didn't devour it, yet still enjoyed...
TV: Peaky Blinders S6
Great so far. One of the best written shows on television. But I've watched only scattered seasons - 1, 4, and now 6.
Great Article
Best article I've read in awhile. One of my old favorites (David Samuels) interviews one of my new favorites Edward Luttwak (I like how he's a new favorite but 79 years old).
Scattered Thoughts on the Drag Queen for Kid Stuff
1) First real drag show I saw was in my 20s. I was semi-disturbed, so no, I wouldn't advocate for young kids.
2) That said, I did see a Rocky Horror production in college. I found it neither disturbing or entertaining.
3) My prediction would be if you took the taboo element out of drag shows by making them more "mainstream" the shows themselves would be revealed as completely empty and devoid of dramatic or aesthetic content. The only thing that makes them remotely interesting is the fact they are taboo.
Sentient AI
Reading the interview with the so-called sentient AI, I found myself intrigued, but moved quickly to boredom -- it felt like listening to a reasonably smart undergraduate embellishing and lying to get into some program or job. Which seems to me reflective of the world view of the programmers.
Why wouldn't a sentient AI speak and write English like an immigrant from Taiwan or Shakespeare? It suggests to me they haven't developed any thoughts or language of their own, but rather are just mimicking their programmers.
Question
Of those 20% of new Yale students who identify as LGBT+, etc, I wonder what percent are also white? My prediction: a lot.
More broadly, what percent of under 30-trans folks are white?
Brief Lesson From the Russia-Ukraine War
From a strategic perspective, the US must maintain 3 things: ability to produce enough food and energy to survive, and to deliver nukes. You see the value of this right now for Russia - they cannot be strangled economically because they have food and energy and no one will invade them and risk nuclear escalation. Note - China imports both food and energy - they cannot produce enough internally to feed or move their own population. This is a strategic disadvantage for them.
Yikes
Now reports of parents begging cops to go in during the active shooter.
Obviously, I don't know what really happened or the situation, but this I do know: when the Defund the Police movement started and a good portion of the elite in our society turned on the police, a cop I know told me it's the good cops who will leave the job for greener pastures because they're the ones who have options.
Uh Huh
Trans person wants to be able to call Chappelle the n word.
God, what are they going to call Gervais?
Accidentally Speaking Truth
I love it when these public clowns accidentally speak the truth. Kap:
Everything I've said should be in alignment with what you're saying publicly," he said. "It's a $16 billion business. When I first took a knee, my jersey went to No. 1. When I did the deal with Nike, their value increased by six billion dollars. Six billion. With a B.
It was always about this👆
Gun Sellers
At the risk of doing what I hate most - make a tragedy into a political argument - would it be so out of the question to make gun sellers somehow partially responsible for mass shootings? I mean, a lonely, weird kid turns 18 in this day and age shouldn't be owning an assault rifle. I'm sorry, on this one I agree gun control advocates. At the very least, we should make the age 21.
And for the people who might say...gun seller can't be responsible for what people do with them...really? You're selling heavy duty weaponry to civilians...if you don't want to be responsible for what happens maybe be in the business of selling clothing or something else...
And just other food for thought:
-can school districts do a little better job of keeping tabs on the psycho kids?
-can schools make it harder for these psychos to enter? can they have more eyes out on entry points and buy some time to anticipate these situations?
-can there be a psycho alert system where kids who are worried about psychos in their communities can report them and can there be a coordination with gun sellers, police, school admin, caretakers, etc?
-is it worth considering that toy stores like target, etc, don't sell machine guns and gatling gun type of weapons to kids? i mean, we had water guns, etc when i was little, now they have these weapons from Commando for kids. pretty soon they'll have a NERF nuclear bomb
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Film: The 400 Blows
Never seen before. From a 2022 perspective...strikes me as a socially conservative film. The villain of the film if you want to call it that, are the boy's parents and particularly the mother, who is irresponsible, unloving, and lazy toward her child. I found the poor teachers at his school oddly sympathetic - they were unfair and judgmental but at least they cared and tried. They were overwhelmed! They had too many students, many without any discipline whatsoever. Hard to escape the detail that the mother wanted to abort the boy -- what might the pro choicers say on this matter?
Biden
Accidentally says the policy I would like re: Taiwan.
But God, tis weird to have a President where the basic assumption needs to be that he misspoke...
Abortion
I guess abortion as a topic got tired of racism getting all the attention and was like, "hold my beer"... so here goes -
It's complicated, so I err on the side of pro choice. But I also imagine if I were to explain abortion as a concept to a reasonably bright 5 or 6 year old and they're going to get a pretty horrified and incredulous reaction to what could be considered the standard "feminist" position of "it's not life yet," or "my body, my choice, etc." I feel like a child can more readily relate to the fetus than to the mother's desire to keep living her best life.
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Film: Memoria
For the 5 minute walk back to my car I didn't want to look at my phone for some reason.
The theater in Pasadena was half full on a Thursday night. The line for other movies was out the door. The theater experience is coming back! The movie offerings this past month are the best they've been in years...The Northman, Memoria, Ambulance, Everything Everywhere, plus the usual franchises and kids movies...
As for the movie itself...my only thought is that there seems to be a new subgenre of films I'll call "Middle Aged Women Wander Around" that seem to be speaking to the audience. I'll put The Lost Daughter, Nomadland, and Memoria in this category. All feature middle aged women with some tragic past wandering in a foreign landscape experiencing ennui, a vague sexually charged encounter with a new man, and ultimately dealing with some revelation about their own past.
I don't understand why this film is a masterpiece (per the critics), so I'll chalk it up to my own ignorance. Maybe I'll try watching his other films...although I dread seeing them on TV...
For my money, in this "realm" of slow film festival cinema, I am most interested in the Turkish director Ceylan who made Winter's Sleep and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia.
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TV: The Last Kingdom S5
I completed the show. They stuck the landing, despite S5 having some clutter and nonsense. King Edward had quite a wonderful season 5 arc and the first half of the season served Brieda very well. A number of actors in small roles from the show are worth remembering:
-Whoever played the Scottish King
-King Alfred
-The ambitious Mercian military leader's sister
-Father Bianca
-The guy who replaced Father Bianca
My last two favorite shows are Gomorrah and this.
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Screenplay: The Godfather
I read over an early version of the script called Second Draft, dated March 1, 1971. Given the film came OUT in 1972, this must be pretty close to a Production Draft. Nevertheless, an incredible number of differences to the final film, some of which I log below:
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Film: Everything Everywhere All At Once
Mixed feelings on this one. I want to intellectually support original films with ambitious filmmaking techniques. And the audience I watched with seemed to enjoy the film. But I didn't laugh much. And I don't think it was my mood. I think it was because when you strip away all the style, weirdness, and butt plugs what you really have is a super sentimental tale whose big idea is "Don't Worry, Be Happy."
Well, This Is Disappointing
Upon hearing there is such a thing as cake gender, I foolishly thought it meant people were sexually attracted to cake.
Logging
Screenplay: Casablanca
Holds up. Argument can be made that Rick Blaine is the quintessential American hero. Our heartbroken drunk Odysseus. It isn't that the audience wouldn't respond to such a film today - it would. Moreso than any film from its time, I'm comfortable showing the film to cynical depressive 20-something film students -- it can still melt hearts. The sad part is that we are institutionally incapable of making such a film anymore. It should disgust anyone who loves movies that we can't even bother to try.
Storytelling notes:
-surprisingly long set up of the world prior to meeting Rick.
-transit papers a strong macguffin. set up very clearly their value and importance. notice rick is indifferent to the macguffin (ie no emotional connection to it), but it serves to make him the focus of the story because everyone wants the papers from him.
-nice foreshadowing of lazlo's introduction along with his "wife," who of course turns out to be a key character
-a great number of four character scenes. in particular, where the central drama is between rick, lazlo, and ilsa, renault often shows up in the scenes and adds wonderful off-handed commentary. what a jolt of energy and dynamism to the scenes!
-a lot of small characters get little arcs within the film - no character is wasted or throwaway, many get great lines and moments. plenty of rich dialog to go around.
-third act is emotional twist after emotional twist. filmmakers on fire. on one version of the screenplay I looked it, it seems they were rewriting up to the very last moment in the middle of production -- what a minor miracle -- the story feels so inevitable.
-world building at the beginning and the flashback to paris aren't the greatest standalone parts, but boy do they pay off--
Logging
TV: The Last Kingdom S1-4
Prior to this, the last show I binged was Gomorrah. Really enjoying the show - great ability to introduce, new compelling characters but sustain a series of main storylines over time. Sort of an interesting example to examine "wokeness" in popular culture because something clearly happened between Season 4 and 5 in terms of casting. So to give some context - the show is about the battles between Saxons and Danes set in like 800s England - so yeah, everyone is white...
But in Season 5 E1, they very noticeably cast a deaf person and a black person in roles -- for what reason -- I don't know, other than I imagine they were trying to hit some diversity mandate or the showrunners suddenly became self conscious. It's sort of weird to see after watching 4 seasons of what felt like a fairly consistent vision. I wonder to what extent we'll continue to see this logic continue on TV shows -- maybe Season 2 Pachinko will feature Michael Pena as the Emperor of Japan.
Why I'm Mostly Out On Liberal Causes...
Lack of context or priorities. I can't keep up with all the things I'm supposed to be hysterically upset by. Can someone please tell me how I should order my anger on the following subjects:
1. Roe v Wade
2. Climate Change
3. White Supremacy
4. Systemic Racism
5. Animal Rights
6. Income Inequality
7. Trans Rights
8. Gay Rights
9. Student Loan Debt
10. Ukraine-Russia War
11. Islamophobia
12. US Foreign Policy Generally
13. Underfunded Public Schools
14. Women's Rights
15. Tax Breaks For the Rich
16. Criminal Justice Reform
17. Vaccines
18. Disinformation
19. Republicans
20. Fascists
21. Capitalism
22. Parents
23. Corporations
24. Dave Chapelle
25. Elon Musk
That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are more.
Logging
Film: The Northman
I found myself highly aware of the filmmaking which is never a ringing endorsement. I guess I appreciated the gusto, ambition, and scale of the filmmaking -- but found myself bored by the over familiarity of the story.
Someone asked me this weekend if I recommend it and I said, "it depends on how you like your cinema."
J&J Vaccine
I remember when you could be banned from the internet for being vaccine skeptical.
Time have changed, I suppose.
Advice
Some of these are pretty good. My favorite: Aim to die broke. Give to your beneficiaries before you die; it’s more fun and useful. Spend it all. Your last check should go to the funeral home and it should bounce.
Psychos
For all the liberal pushback against Chris Rufo and De Santis, it seems pretty self evident, we've got a lot of psychos masquerading as progressives.
“I had a ton of issues with my academics and my mental health, but I never really got help with that,” she said. “As soon as I said I was trans, it was all hands on deck.”
I might start calling this institutional psychosis.
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TV: Abbot Elementary Pilot
The Office/Parks and Rec set in Elementary School. Well done, easy to watch. Good cast, new faces.
TV: Bust Down
Not for me.
Film: Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Decided to show my kids some of the movie to expose them to more than Captain Underpants, but immediately regretted it when the bandits hacked Humphrey Bogart to death.
Gee, I Wonder Why
Kids in droves leaving public schools.
Unrelated, San Diego high school dropping Honors courses.
To see a connection between the two would be racist. But also, if there is a connection, it reveals racism as well.
CA Public Schools
Are failing. 30% of 8th graders are proficient at reading. And if you've taken the proficient at reading tests, that's a more embarrassing number than you can imagine.
This, along with homelessness, is the legacy of Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, and Eric Garcetti, the worst trio of national stature CA politicians ever.
Questions
1) Is it Autism Awareness Month or Arab American History month, because I've been notified of both? Does it being both undermine the other one?
2) Do liberals think we'd have the Ukraine-Russia war if Trump were President?
3) California will ban new purchases of ICE vehicles by 2035. This is the same state that I've lived in my entire life and witnessed how the vast majority of people switched from sedans to SUVs over the past 20 years. Am I supposed to seriously the idea that Californias care about pollution and the environment?
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TV: The Last Kingdom
I'm enjoying it. A cross between Xena Warrior Princess and Game of Thrones, but seemingly built upon some "real history" if I'm not mistaken.
A thing I like about the storytelling: the pacing. They give two fucks about jumping huge amounts of time if it seems like an interesting thing to do.
Book: Echoes in the Darkness by Joseph Wambaugh
Fascinating but I'm thinking of stopping because what am I really going to learn from it in the end?
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Film: The Florida Project
Wonderful, exciting cinema and storytelling. But I felt like the end was a total cop out. The liberal intelligencia (ie film festival crowd, NY Times, public schools, etc) doesn't have the language to deal with consequences.
Film: The Worst Person In The World
A terrific film that I would recommend although it felt like it kept going and going. Some wonderful scenes - many featuring her comic book writer boyfriend and his story. Managed to incorporate some refreshing cinematic techniques that were more common in the Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry era.
Thanks Megan Markle
Now we have Taylor Lorenz, an ultra privileged NY Times columnist breaking down about her suicidal ideation due to online harassment (also known as criticism or being challenged).
A pretty remarkable world where the powerful and privileged get to hold the rest of us as emotional hostages.