~ Mark

I had never written a movie before and Dan gave me this huge list of movies and took me to Whole Foods with his laptop. We sat and watched every movie on the list frame-by-frame and talked through it. That was my film school, meeting with Dan at Whole Foods.

Lucy Alibar, on adapting “Juicy and Delicious” into Beasts of the Southern Wild. Easy as that.

America’s favorite joke is anything but funny – Salon.com

~ Mark

Without the foil, we would have to face our own poverties, our own barbarism, our own shelteredness, our own actual lack of sophistication.

Also:

The problem with a stereotype is usually not that it is completely inaccurate, but that it identifies a feature as relevant or important for irrelevant reasons and, in so doing, makes it difficult for the person or entity to break out of the stereotype and beyond it in observers’ eyes, which makes an authentic relationship with the stereotyped person or entity impossible.

Filed under: rednecks, stereotypes

America’s favorite joke is anything but funny – Salon.com

Julian Baggini – The art of coffee

~ Mark

The logical consequence of molecular gastronomy is haute-mechanisation. If the best way to cook meat, for example, really is to vacuum-seal it with some herbs and spices and cook in water at 55 °C (131 °F) for 48 hours, then as soon as a suitable, cheap sous-vide cooker is available, there is no reason why a novice chef in a local pub, or anyone else for that matter, couldn’t collect it from the butcher and do as good a job as anyone else.

Julian Baggini – The art of coffee

Favorite improvements of 2012

~ Mark

In addition to my previous posts on movies, books, and music, I’ll mention some things that made my life better last year, in some way or another. I’m dividing it here into two parts: things I bought, and decisions I made.

Products

  • Amazon Prime. Wonderful. Love it. I get another source for movies, and I get stuff I don’t always need, more quickly. This is why we made civilization.
  • A grapefruit spoon. Great example of having the right tool for the job. When you need both cutting and scooping power. An incredibly thoughtful gift from a friend who listens well.
  • A drain snake. There is no reason, in this day and age, in a nation of great prosperity, to suffer through domestic life with a slow or clogged drain. (I think I have a thing about drains. The sink strainers I bought a couple years ago still deliver me daily joy.)
  • A shoehorn. I hate when my shoes get the crumpled heel counter. And it feels nice. Hard to explain, it just feels proper and kinda smug, which is great way to start the day.
  • Better sound. The small, relatively inexpensive upgrades for my amplifier, headphones, and earbuds have made all the difference. Louder sound, cleaner sound, less background noise. And I don’t even think I’m much of an audiophile (……….yet?).
  • Ghostery is a great way to fight the Man, and an easy, at-a-glance way to roughly gauge which sites are more bullshitty than others.
  • Embracing a uniform, sorta. My favorite thing to wear is a grey t-shirt and jeans. Or grey t-shirts and pants. Or a grey sweatshirt. Or a blue or white button-up. Or some combination of the above. Boring. Predictable. Stockpile the good stuff and phase out the rest!
  • Art. I ripped a bunch of things out of art books to frame, but I also bought a kick-ass print to hang by my desk and had a friend make me a painting that sits in the bedroom.

Decisions

  • I resigned from my job at HowStuffWorks. I had a good run, but it was probably past time. (4.5 years! Dang, y’all.)
  • I started a new job at SimplePart. Awesome startup I was super-stoked to join.
  • I resigned from that new job at SimplePart. Awesome company, but the wrong fit, it turns out. No hard feelings on either side. They’re gonna make piles of money.
  • Taking my time to figure it out. I’m lucky I’ve been a disciplined miser since college, which gives me the chance to leap into the great unemployed unknown every now and then (and go hiking). This whole discernment process has been exhausting/exciting/stressful/fun, depending on the day/week/minute. Who knows what’s next?
  • I started going to therapy. There is nothing quite like it. Everyone I’ve mentioned it to has been supportive and/or jealous. Not to claim that I’ve made huge strides as a human being, but I can’t think of anyone who would not benefit from setting aside some time (and money, yeah) for thoughtful conversation focused on yourself.
  • I called my family more often. This isn’t saying much, but it’s a step in the right direction for sure.

Here’s to another year of small improvements and big ones.

Favorite movies of 2012

~ Mark

I watched more movies in 2012 than any other year of my life, by far (132). I should have taken up cinephilia years and years ago. Although, um, I maybe should tone it down a bit?

Some of the high points this year came from diving deep into Michael Mann, Steven Soderbergh, and yeah, Ben Affleck, along with re-watching a good collection of old favorites. Below are some new-to-me movies that I loved in 2012. I looked at my diary on Letterboxd, and listed the movies that I gave either 4.5 or 5 stars. All the links go to my own reviews:

  • Heat (watched 3x!) “Yeah, this is definitely going on my list of movies that are 1) more than 2.5 hours long, and 2) worth watching 3x or more.”
  • Lawrence of Arabia. “David Lean? This, Doctor Zhivago, and Brief Encounter? There’s a resume for you.”
  • Beasts of the Southern Wild. “Best soundtrack of the year so far? I might have cried twice.”
  • The New World. “You’re forced to set aside Disney memories and whatever historical précis you’ve got leftover from school.”
  • The Iron Giant. “The greatest anti-war film ever made.”
  • Certified Copy. “The surprises depend on you coming to a conclusion, one way or another, and the way the movie unfolds, you have to question what you come up with.”
  • Take Shelter. “Often when I see extreme psychological issues on screen it feels like an excuse for spectacle, it’s motive, it’s entertainment. Michael Shannon’s paranoia just breaks him.”
  • Warrior (2x!) “Some plot points are about subtle as a kick to the head, but the power is there, too.”
  • Midnight in Paris. “I love our hero’s giddy, can’t-believe-his-luck enthusiasm. This might be my favorite Owen Wilson performance ever.”
  • The Night of the Hunter. “Some things aren’t right in this neighborhood. Perfect horror.”
  • Thief. “I also like that this thief isn’t an MI-style sneaky ninja techno-athlete or some kind of capoeira breakdancer. He’s an old man. He’s got a limp. He wants to have a wife and kid.”

And what the hell, here are the 4-star movies from 2012. It’s a thin line:

Favorite books of 2012

~ Mark

Like my year in music, my reading was also a little down this year, especially over late summer and fall. I think I did pretty well on fiction this time around, though. I’ll stick to a couple picks for each month:

January
Extra Lives. Why video games are awesome and why they make you feel guilty and ashamed. And more! (reviewed)

Runner-up: The Art of Fielding. A tale of baseball and friendship that’s much, much better than it sounds. (reviewed)

February
Steal Like an Artist. Obviously. But you don’t have to take my word for it.

Runner-up: Hark! A Vagrant. I wish this was my high school history textbook.

March
Distrust That Particular Flavor. Twenty years of work from a great mind. I tumbled a bunch of quotes.

Runner-up: Dreamtigers. Only giving this one second place because I’ve read some of the stories before. Borges is still a champ.

April
The Gift of Fear. A fascinating look at the psychology of trust. (reviewed)

Runner-up: Philosophy Bites, for thoughtful variety that, like the podcast of the same name, doesn’t waste your time.

May
Religion for Atheists, for its thoughtful, inquisitive look at something many of us are already decided about. One of my favorites this year. (reviewed)

Runner-up: Macbeth, for being short and sweeping and brilliant. (tumbled)

Second runner-up: Mindless Eating, for its friendly, simple, super-practical approach to habits you might want to change. (reviewed)

June
{sound of crickets}

July
An Economist Gets Lunch, for Tyler Cowen’s typically counter-intuitive, omnivorous openness to experience. I’m a huge fan.

Runner-up: Imaginary Magnitude. A collection of introductions to fictional books covering, among other things, x-ray pornograms, computer-generated literature, and a biography of a sentient, moody super-computer. If you like the Borges above, or Borges in general, or strange science fiction, or strange conceptual writing in general, this is absolutely a book for you.

August, September, October
{embarrassed silence}

November
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. This is tied with The Art of Fielding for the “How did he make that book so page-turnable?” award. A light, bright, fun adventure. Robin Sloan is next-level.

December
A Visit from the Goon Squad. Growing up in a music-heavy world. I like that every chapter has a different voice, perspective, and structure.

Runner-up: The First Four Notes, for its wide-ranging history of philosophy and aesthetics that uses Beethoven’s music as the pivot point.

The Millions : My New Year’s Resolution: Read Fewer Books

~ Mark

In an odd way, the fact that no one else knows has made me more competitive, not less. I’m sure serious runners are familiar with this seeming paradox. Maybe nobody else knows that you shaved 1.2 seconds off your personal best time for the mile, but you know — and that knowledge, plus the fact that your achievement has brought you no external reward, gives you a perverse sense of satisfaction. Or no, let’s be honest about this: it gives you a perverse sense of superiority.

The Millions : My New Year’s Resolution: Read Fewer Books

Django Unchained

~ Mark

Django Unchained. The best way to summarize my experience is that this movie made me excited about what movies can do. And like Compliance, a huge part of the experience is how you share it with a theater full of other viewers. Powerful, thoughtful entertainment that makes you think about why you’re entertained.

Django, the N-Word, and How We Talk About Race in 2013 – Grantland

~ Mark

While not the same, because it’s much more complex, this “Django Moment” is an evolutionary advancement to my own personal “Jay-Z Moment,” in which the decision has to be made, going into one of his shows, of how to attack the N-word. While most certainly not just tied to Mr. Carter, the overall sentiment of “I’m not black, but I want to say the N-word at this concert, because the rapper onstage is practically begging me to say it along with him” has long been something to note among his ever growing, ever more mainstream fan base. What’s happening in Django is simply taking that premise to the next, more intense level.

Really good stuff from Rembert Browne (@rembert).

Django, the N-Word, and How We Talk About Race in 2013 – Grantland

~ Mark

This is what RSS is for, these days: you set a snare, leave it, and trap for yourself the words you want to read most.

Robin Sloan.

Un flic (A Cop/Dirty Money)

~ Mark

Un flic (A Cop/Dirty Money). I love seeing older movies like this and realize I’m seeing some of the early DNA for later films. Like the camera that circles the group as they plan/explain the upcoming heist. The helicopter+locomotive scene was surely an inspiration for Mission Impossible. And the ending, where the camera holds on Delon’s face as he drives? You see the same thing echoed at the close of Michael Clayton. You’re invited to linger on the protagonist and speculate about how they feel about the whole ordeal. Oh, and I love Delon’s (anti-)hero here. He’s not traditionally noble. Like how he handles the love triangle. Or the part where, instead of trying to prevent a suicide and collar a live suspect, he closes the door? Woah! And about those criminals: like I mentioned when I watched Thief, there’s something about seeing middle-aged guys doing heists that’s kind of refreshing. And the one guy hiding the moonlighting from his wife! He’s like, “The job interview went okay. Long day!” Ha! This movie also has: 1. Catherine Deneuve (not enough, but hey). 2. A character nicknamed Matthew Suitcase. 3. A transvestite informer (/love interest?). Looks great, sounds great. Great movie. Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï is also very good. I also love Alain Delon in Plein Soleil/Purple Noon.