Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

It's an easy trap to fall into.

24

Comments

  • Jurf_WurburJurf_Wurbur Posts: 5,475
    Fever Dream is pretty awesome and people who read should read that. It's 183 small, wide-margin pages with larger than normal line spacing, you can probably knock it out in one sitting. It's by an Argentinian writer and it's very much in line with classic Spanish language-originating (don't worry the translation is great) quasi-supernatural novellas. It's scary and riveting.
  • Jurf_WurburJurf_Wurbur Posts: 5,475
    It's sort of the short novel equivalent of a really good Spanish/Latin American horror film.
  • captqitncaptqitn Posts: 3,624
    (jotting that down)
  • Jurf_WurburJurf_Wurbur Posts: 5,475
    Boom.
    IMG_20180405_071746.jpg
    3527 x 2645 - 771K
  • captqitncaptqitn Posts: 3,624
    Nice!!
  • captqitncaptqitn Posts: 3,624
    S_____ is in Vegas this week. So as is my tradition, I blasted AC/DC last night.

    I am not allowed to do so when she is present.
  • Jurf_WurburJurf_Wurbur Posts: 5,475
    (nods)

    Getting your headbanging time when married...

    I tell you folks: it's harder than it looks.
  • moetownmoetown Posts: 3,276
    Dear Warriors, won't you come out to play-yay?
  • captqitncaptqitn Posts: 3,624
    image
  • captqitncaptqitn Posts: 3,624
    What's errybody planning to do on this weekend?
  • Jurf_WurburJurf_Wurbur Posts: 5,475
    HA! Nice pic.

    I'll be driving to deliver food and/or driving people with Lyft. I had a shit month on sales and I'm restless anyway so that will tip the scales back to the good end.
  • captqitncaptqitn Posts: 3,624
    I guess it's a good thing that there's a way to fill in those gaps. Sorry you can just be in a hammock all weekend though.

  • captqitncaptqitn Posts: 3,624
    A_____'s Junior Prom is tonight.
    S_____ returns from Vegas tomorrow.
    Definitely going to see Isle of Dogs at some point.

    I think that's all I got.
  • LefunesteLefuneste Posts: 7,989
    edited April 2018
    But that's how the bible should always be read!
  • moetownmoetown Posts: 3,276
    My co-worker is a right-wing racist Evangelical Christian. I never call her out, but I usually express that I don't think like she does. During a discussion of some work related drama yesterday, she warned me to be careful because (whisper) "blacks stick together." (She always whispers shit even though we're the only two people in a portable building.) I said what I usually say in these situations, "I don't look at the world that way."
    I think she finally realized that "I don't look at the world that way," is my conflict-avoiding way of telling her she's racist because then she said, "I know I sound like a racist, but I'm not. I'm just calling a spade a spade." She repeated she wasn't racist a few times, and then told my colleagues at lunch that she wasn't racist. (All my white colleagues are people who don't acknowledge that they're racist.) I think I heard her say it about 6 or 7 times yesterday. I guess if you tell yourself and other people something over and over again, you might convince yourself that it's true.
  • LefunesteLefuneste Posts: 7,989
    I'm not racist, but... Them nazis had a lot of good ideas.

    I'm not racist, but... you do know da heebs use the blood of Christian babies to make matzoh, right?

    I'm not a racist, but... Fuck them niggers!

    I'm not racist, but... "There are some very fine people on both sides".
  • LefunesteLefuneste Posts: 7,989
    edited April 2018
    Oh, and did you know that some of my best friends are black?
  • LefunesteLefuneste Posts: 7,989
    edited April 2018
    One of my pet peeves regarding conversations on the internets:

    I say: This is bad.
    Internet person, pretending to be all wise and cynical and shit: And this surprises you??????

    Hey, dumb ass, I didn't say I was surprised, I said it was bad. Not the same thing.
  • moetownmoetown Posts: 3,276
    edited April 2018
    I started trying to learn Fleetwood Mac’s Never Going Back Again. It’s in drop D and has some tricky fingerpicking patterns. Maybe in about 3 years, I’ll be able to play a decent version.

    Fleetwood Mac was never one of my favorites bands, but I think Lindsey Buckingham is a pretty great guitar player.
  • matthewmatthew Posts: 419
    Jeff, I would put y'all up if I had a bigger place, but there is only one couch here. I am mostly free other than my classes, so if anyone ever happens by Montreal, I can easily meet up anytime.
  • matthewmatthew Posts: 419
    Watched Last Jedi last night. Honestly, that franchise ran out of ideas in 1983. Maybe 1980. There just isn't that much for writers to do so long as they are tethered to the central "Rebellion vs Empire" theme. Then again, the Alien franchise is blessed with the simplicity of a single constant (essentially a large bug that kills things) and they still can't manage to make a decent film.

    As with Ghostbusters 2016, the reviews focusing squarely (or disproportionately on) complaints about the political correctness of the films are far off the mark (the shallow, insincere corporate 'political correctness' is cloying and obnoxious, but not at all the reason this film was so awful) , but this does not mean that the film is any better than they suggest.

    This movie was essentially three interminable scenes running for the entire duration of the film's excruciating 150-minute runtime. There was no purpose to any of them, no coherent plot or character development, no performances or memorable sequences, no laughs, no interesting character designs or new ideas. It was all rehash, failed attempts at fan-service, obvious merchandising, and relentless padding. The poor cinematic construction only served to further illuminate the total lack of ideas. The sheer number of establishing shots of Ahch-To eventually elicited laughter from my friend and I. Invariably, each establishing shot of the island would be followed by a nearly identical shot of Rey marching upstairs or up a grassy hill on the heels of the morose Luke Skywalker. No new developments, nothing of any consequence, no added character depth, no forwarding of the story. Rey achieves nothing at Ahch-To and yet only leaves the islands after the eighty-minute mark. The equally pointless fleet chase sequence lasts for an exhausting one hour and fifty-five minutes only to be moved to Crait for a mind-numbingly bland reenactment of the Battle of Hoth, now with a Death Star on wheels (the "battering ram cannon") attacking the wall from Game of Thrones.

    The reason I point to these aimless threads is that the Rose/Finn thread is unfairly singled out as pointless (which it certainly was) when no element of the film had any purpose at all. The film is terrible by any measure. By focusing on the complaints of fanboys and those who have been propagandized into believing that 'social justice warriors' and 'cultural Marxism' are responsible for all the world's ills, leads to needless contortions trying to find merit in a film whose flaws are very simple and obvious.

    Personally, I am flabbergasted that this was written and directed by Rian Johnson, whose films "Brick" and "Looper" I found quite enjoyable.
  • moetownmoetown Posts: 3,276
    Godless over on the Netflix is good stuff.
  • matthewmatthew Posts: 419
    That said, the insincere, corporate 'multiculturalism' and 'gender equality' was so unsubtle and jarring that I half expected to see someone in a wheelchair wheel away from a console and say, "General Organa! Tie-fighters coming in from the port side!"

    The strangest part of this, and probably what made it so cringe-inducing, is that they inexplicably extended this sense of inclusiveness to the Empire/First Order. Thematically it made sense in the previous films that the Empire's military was 100% white and 100% male. The officers often spoke in stiff English accents and the films were clearly playing on popular American tropes which often see the imperious British as villains. It made sense that they were all white and human. The rebel alliance had more non-whites, women, and aliens, reflecting the grabbag of subordinated races that were struggling against the very 'British' Empire.

    But no, now that Disney has chosen to overcompensate by giving equal screen time to men and women (actually going beyond parity and placing almost all authority in the hands of three women Leia, Laura Dern and some officer who looked vaguely like Lena Dunham) and a cavalcade of racial groups, they clearly anticipated people calling them out for retaining the "all white all male bad guy" thing and made the First Order just as diverse as the Rebels. Jesus Christ.


  • LefunesteLefuneste Posts: 7,989
    Matt...


    "And this surprises you??????"
  • moetownmoetown Posts: 3,276
    So I guess you wouldn't recommend seeing this film?
  • LefunesteLefuneste Posts: 7,989
    edited April 2018
    By the way Matt, don't be surprised if I no longer react to your posts on the books of face. I still have an account, facebook is useful for some things (like guitar for sale postings and knowing what my brother is up to) but I decided to be less active. I was never that active anyway so it's easy-peasy...

    I've always hated the place, and that Cambridge Analytica scandal was the last straw.
  • matthewmatthew Posts: 419
    edited April 2018
    Not at all. I wrote an even longer rant about how it makes no sense that anyone would expect anything other than bad cinema to come from that franchise. That's what my opening line is referring to ("franchise ran out of ideas in 1983. Maybe 1980"). None of it is original or breaking new ground. Even Return of the Jedi was recycling ideas from the previous two movies. It's the Taco Bell of movie franchises and it makes no sense whatsoever that the fanboys screech each time that it is nothing more than shredded cheese, lettuce and ground beef arranged only slightly differently.

    I only watch them for the pleasure of laughing at what a disaster they are (and to prime myself for the eventual release of a RiffTrax - I sometimes find it hard to follow the story with their running commentary) The only reason I wrote anything here was that I felt that we've arrived at an awkward time where people end up defending garbage because the attacks on it come from such a stupid place (the basement-dwellers blaming "SJWs" and "feminism" for ruining Star Wars) or sad place (the basement-dwellers who expect the new enchilada to be radically different from the taco and burritos they ate when they were 10 years old).

    I don't really follow Rotten Tomatoes, but this film has a 91% rating from critics on there. I feel like even people who genuinely loved the film wouldn't rate something so obviously flawed at 91%, meaning that people are basing their reviews on something other than the film itself.

    The movie was very bad, just like most of the others. It may have managed to be even more dull to watch than even Rogue One, despite not being nearly as pretentious.

    Anyway, my point was that I find the arguments over Star Wars puzzling given that it is unlikely anywhere for the franchise to go so long as they continue mining the Rebel vs Empire thing, or so long as they continue to write stories where the very survival of the rebellion is perpetually at stake. Rogue One was originally teased as some sort of departure...a side story (hence, "A Star Wars Story")...and yet even it retreated to the familiar Death Star cliches.

    Maybe Ron Howard's "Solo" will actually manage to tell a story that doesn't end in precisely the same way that the previous nine films have.

    EDIT: Some people are giving Last Jedi credit for at least TRYING TO defy expectations. It does so, actively. Almost every sequence of the film sets the audience up to anticipate something that is not delivered. Even one scene shows what appears to be a space shuttle landing on a landing pad, but it turns out to be a robotic ironing board ironing clothing. Rian Johnson might deserve some points for trying to toy with the audience, but it still doesn't make the movie a good movie.

  • moetownmoetown Posts: 3,276
    My crazy mind hasn't allowed me to stay focused on any book I've tried to read in a few months. Fortunately, I can still read comics. I picked up a Dr. Strange, Aquaman (have never liked), some Batman, and Secret Identity (Kurt Busiek). Dr. Strange is pretty groovy.
  • LefunesteLefuneste Posts: 7,989
    edited April 2018
    Matt, regarding my ""And this surprises you??????" comment... You should check my post 3,106 above, two posts before your review of the last Star Wars movie.

  • LefunesteLefuneste Posts: 7,989
    'Cause , see, I would really hate it if you didn't get one of my lame-o infantile jokes. L-)
Sign In or Register to comment.