Looks like the Paris Olympics are off to a ridiculous start.
Good time for me to go on …
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Monthly Archives: July 2024
The year 2024, as expected, has been insane.
I expect 2025 to be even crazier.
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The thing is, no matter who wins the November election, chaos remains.
It’s hard to believe that, should the Democrats prevail, MAGA Nation will shake its collective head and say, “Oh, well — better luck next time!”
It’s hard to believe that, should the Republicans win, “progressives” will sigh and think, “Oh, well — we gave it our best shot!”
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Nope.
Everything is going to be nuts for years to come.
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What next? Another assassination attempt? A contrived economic crash? World War III?
A dictatorship on the left or a dictatorship on the right?
Nothing seems out of the question.
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Have a nice week!
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17Jul
by David Grann
A few weeks ago, I watched a YouTube video featuring amazing images of Mars that have been transmitted back to Earth. The high-definition pictures of the red planet’s barren landscapes held my interest for 15 minutes or so — and then it was time to move on to the next video. I’d seen enough.
Perhaps I’ve become jaded, or I’ve watched too many science-fiction movies.
It’s easy to forget how, for most of history, exploration was a rock-star pursuit that riveted the world. Long before YouTube, or even television, newspaper accounts of adventurers like Percy Fawcett mesmerized readers all over the globe.
David Grann (Killers of the Flower Moon) spent years researching the life, legend and disappearance of Fawcett, a British explorer who entered the Amazon basin in 1925 with two other expedition members — hoping to confirm the existence of the titular “Z” — and then never came back.
Did the Fawcett party fall victim to disease or to predators? Did a hostile tribe kill them? Grann’s exhaustive research (and even a trip to the Amazon, hoping to retrace Fawcett’s final excursion) fails to provide definitive answers.
That’s a problem. By the book’s conclusion, we still don’t know what became of the enigmatic, obsessed (I might say “bull-headed”) explorer. Nor, despite Grann’s best efforts and imagination, do we get conclusive answers about the mythical “city of Z.”
By the time I turned the last page, I was impressed by Grann’s achievement. I was intrigued by Fawcett and his exploits. But unlike those newspaper readers of a century ago, I was not enthralled.
I was ready for the next YouTube video.
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Border
Tina is a Swedish customs agent with an unusual talent. Much like a predator in the wild, she can sense heightened emotion in humans: fear, shame, or guilt. If you’re nervous and trying to smuggle a bottle of booze past security, best not walk near Tina.
I’m not well-versed in Scandinavian folklore, so when we learn the genesis of Tina’s special power — shortly after she encounters a man who is homely and outcast, like she is — my reaction was, “this is interesting.”
The problem with Border is that, while it is intriguing and well-made, it’s also relentlessly nihilistic and unpleasant. As if Tina’s lonely lot in life isn’t sad enough, there are subplots involving pedophilia and reproduction that made me want to … well, no thank you.
You can take Border as an allegory of the struggles of marginalized people in society, or as a face-value monster movie. But after we learn the big reveal, my main reaction was, “this is too depressing.” Release: 2018 Grade: C+
Would I watch it again? No.
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Talk to Me
When I see that a horror movie has a lofty approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I tend to take that information with a grain of salt. The bar for most modern horror is so low that, I suspect, many critics overreact when they watch something that doesn’t actually suck.
Talk to Me, a thriller from Australia with 95 percent approval on Rotten Tomatoes, does not suck. It doesn’t break new ground in its genre, and it isn’t particularly scary. Yet it does have something rare: characters that are interesting.
Sophie Wilde plays Mia, a high school girl who, along with her circle of friends, discovers the ultimate party game — a mummified hand that, when touched, conjures spirits. Evil spirits. As you might expect, things do not go well for the thrill-seeking teens.
But Mia’s relationship with her friends and family raises Talk to Me a notch above its competitors. Release: 2022 Grade: B
Would I watch it again? Possibly.
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I’m not sure what more can be said to convince undecided voters that they should go for the orange-skinned braggart over what amounts to a periodically lucid corpse (above).
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YouTube, which routinely censors political speech it doesn’t like, apparently has no problem with the scores of “try-on haul” videos proliferating on the site.
Young women model lingerie and bikinis that are see-thru, affording viewers clear full-frontal and full-rear looks at their goodies.
Fifty years ago, some of this stuff would have been too risqué for Playboy magazine.
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It’s summer, so I’m taking the rest of the day off.
Then again, I am looking for a new topic for our “Male Gazing” category. Maybe I’ll check out those try-on haul YouTube videos to find the best ones ….
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