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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • My recommendations to you are as follows:

    My favorite Altman film overall probably might have to be The Long Goodbye. Check out how the camera is always moving, if even slightly; there are no static shots. Midway through the movie, the great Sterling Hayden steals the show. And keep an eye out for a very, very young Ahnold Schwarzenegger in a bit role as literal and figurative muscle for the batshit insane bad guy.

    Brewster McCloud is a bonkers twisted fantasy that caught me by surprise by how much I enjoyed it, it’s about a kid who:

    1. Lives in the Astrodome in secret, in a forgotten construction nook, a big one, between walls and floors.
    2. Wants to be able to fly.
    3. Is being encouraged by an older woman, who might actually already know how to fly.

    Also, there are people being killed all over town, and it might have something to do with all this.



  • a multi-character parallel storytelling style that is only ever celebrated amongst industry snobs

    I’m going to agree with caveats here, because some directors who are actual artists do it for the sake of the film and the challenge of it, as opposed to what I’ll refer to as “industry types”, who do it for the prizes. And some crazy bastards manage to pull it off. Three names come to mind - Robert Altman, Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Soderbergh.

    I’ve never seen “Crash” and never wanted to, from what I’ve read, the bland yet heavy-handed results onscreen, plus the lazy reflexive accolades, made me view the whole thing with a cynical eye, like you.

    In fact, Robert Altman had a thing or two to say about those “industry types”, in his triumphant early-90s comeback film “The Player”.
    Also, do yourself a favor and watch Altman’s “Short Cuts”, to see parallel storytelling at its’ best.


  • I’ve seen Shadows, Faces and The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie.
    The man nearly single-handedly invented independent highbrow cinema in the United States, a gritty and bare urban realism that is as artistically important as the French Nouvelle Vague.

    To put it in an oversimplified way, without Cassavettes there is no Scorsese as we know him.





  • Looks to me like some of the boys at Fermilab came up with an experiment to keep Schrodinger’s cat inside the box but visible the whole time.

    Did you know that at Fermilab if you’re a boy, you get to play around with cool collapsable wave functions, and if you’re a girl, you get to play around with groovy flavor-changing neutrinos.



  • The same goes for a lot of YouTube channels.
    In fact, I opened a Patreon account just to show a little monthly support for an excellent, criminally underrated creator of videos on astronomy and its’ history, ParallaxNick.

    Among other topics, the guy recently finished a four-part series on Galileo, a two-parter on Kepler before that, a single on Copernicus before that. By my calculations, I’m guessing a six-part masterpiece on Newton is right around the corner.


  • The point is to give someone vulnerable a full life, with safety and warmth.
    From your perspective, time went by too fast; from their perspective, it was a long and peaceful lifetime, they were incredibly fortunate to have someone like you.

    Also, there is an implicit assumption we carry around that to be immortal is some sort of blessing or state to aspire to, while it may very well be that being mortal is itself the blessing.

    In my opinion, the highest tribute one can pay to a departed friend and companion is to again open one’s home to another vulnerable creature and make him/her family.

    Do it in your departed friend’s memory and honor. If you could communicate again with them, you would let them know this is part of their proud and gentle legacy, to reduce suffering on the world - “Look what you did, by being who and what you were for me in life, you opened the door for someone else when their turn came.”

    This is what I have done, and do not regret a minute of it.