Last week I finished a project: MoviePeers.com, a novelty website inspired by a tweet from last year. I’d been meaning to circle back to it for a while! Felt good to wrap it up and ship it.
The long weekend felt like it split the week into two parts – one in goblin mode, watching movies, reading; the other cranking through interviews, administrative stuff. Also got a wedding license and picked up my ring. Big week!
Art
A Navajo weaving of an Intel Pentium chip.
The flat face of this mask (kplekple) really tickles me for some reason.
Extraordinary Values, painting by Ray Yoshida.
Running
It’s that time of year where an evening run comes with a lovely sunset.
I ran about ~16.5 miles yesterday, my longest in a good while. Felt great during the run. Feeling some “overdid it” kinks in the system today, but really happy with my progress, the fact that it didn’t feel like a big deal. Running with company probably helped with that. The next couple weeks will be a short taper to my next race.
Books
New York 2140, cont. This book has been so fun. Halfway through.
Articles & Episodes & Twoots
“The older you get, the more you’re able to look at it and go, well, it’s not my brilliance that made this thing a hit and it’s not my stupidity that made this one flop.”
“One Minute Park allows you to visit parks from around the world for one minute each.” (via Naive Weekly, one of my favorite newsletters)
On luxury produce: “A certain kind of tomato has become a status symbol.”
How pour-over coffee got good.
“Nobody has ever scolded themselves for failure to complete a reference book. They are intended to be used as the reader demands—nothing more. You owe no obeisance to the author; there is no pretense of a conversation.”
Progressives need to learn to take the W. “There’s another, more subtle cost of perpetual outrage as a theory of change. I think it leads to premature exhaustion and unnecessary disillusionment, by preventing progressives from realizing when they’ve had major successes.”
The latest issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room is focused on Spike Lee.
The Secret Inside One Million Checkboxes.
Furnishing your house with server racks.
Movies
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. It’s crazy how good this movie looks. An under-appreciated franchise this century. I love how they show the ape societies developing – architecture, costume, tools. Interesting that they do the same no-kiss greeting as in Fury Road/Furiosa: foreheads touching, hand on the back of the other’s. LOL at apes talking about now-immiserated scavenger humans like stray animals. I like the very gradual character reveals!
Incroyable mais vrai (Incredible But True). A couple buys a house that happens to have a portal where you can time travel 12 hours ahead while also getting 3 days younger. Great soundtrack! Old-school classical and videogame-like electronic versions. I like the use of montage to fast forward.
Beast. Jessie Buckley is awesome and after seeing this and Men and Women Talking, I’ll keep tuning in.
Beetlejuice. Speaking over very gradual character reveals. They very literally do not make them like this anymore. What a manic, crazy blend – I love the actors, across the cast, putting all their chips in. The suicide jokes (?!) didn’t age well!
Music
Started off the week in an R&B mood…
- Prince, For You. Never gone that deep in the Prince archives before. “Soft and Wet” is the only one I knew of, still bouncy and perfect. The demented backbeat in “In Love” feels like a decade ahead of time.
- Maze, Frankie Beverly, Silky Soul. Late ’80s disco/funk/soul/R&B – even if you don’t know the songs, the music sounds so familiar and comforting (and owes a tremendous debt to Marvin Gaye). “Love’s On the Run” has the bump.
- The Best of Sade. When the “Best Of” album comes out before two other killer albums. “Hang On to Your Love” deserves some more attention. “Kiss of Life” has lovely production, something I’d listen to when I take my imaginary sailboat out at sunset. The grinding, vaguely menacing electric guitar takes “No Ordinary Love” to a level few can reach.
I like listening to other people’s playlists. But more often, I just pillage and plunder for ideas. I usually end up skimming the titles and snagging a couple albums that catch my eye. This week, albums stolen from a playlist for driving around Oahu:
- Pacific, from Haruomi Honoso, Shigeru Suzuki, and Tatsuro Yamashita. “ノスタルジア・オブ・アイランド (Nostalgia of the Island)” is an easy fave, lazy and happy.
- Raymond Scott, Manhattan Research, Inc.. I really like the noises, but there was too much talking (for me, at the time).
- Daniel Lanois, Shine.
- Gaussian Curve, Clouds.
- A.R.T. Wilson, Overworld.
Cameroon: Baka Pygmy Music. Highlights are the children singing in “Hut Song” and aquatic percussion in “The Water Drum“.
Back to Beethoven again this week, comparing/contrasting recordings to make my soul bigger:
- Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4, Op.58 & Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 19 perf. Rudolf Serkin, Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra.
- Beethoven: Piano Concerto Nos. 4 & 5 perf. Daniel Barenboim, Berliner Philharmoniker.
- Beethoven: Piano Concertos No. 3 Op. 37 & No. 4 Op. 58 per. Krystian Zimerman, Leonard Bernstein, Wiener Philharmoniker. I like how the piano sounds here, it seems to have the most “sparkle” to it.
- Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 4, perf. Mitsuko Uchida, Kurt Sanderling, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. This sound is so smooth and round and full, and feels like a wider overall dynamic range in the recording/performance. Probably my favorite of this bunch.
TV
X-Files, s3e7 “The Walk“. Another military revenge plot, this one in a veterans hospital. Fun to see the “No sir, it’s unusual.” guy from No Country for Old Men in a starring role here.
The Leftovers, s2e1 “Axis Mundi“. This show. Dang. This is why we say some works have a “rich text”. I took a bunch of notes, but feel like I just need to let them simmer. I had no idea Regina King was in this show!
Interview With the Vampire, s3-4. So, this Claudia character… I appreciate what she’s doing for the story, but a very tiresome presence on screen.
Mark Larson 