Starting a new tradition with Ikea assemblies where I add the discussion had during the build into the instructions http://i.imgur.com/9LiM59y.jpg
The genius of this simultaneously simple and profound phrase
The genius of this simultaneously simple and profound phrase comes from its naked embrace of the fact that some stories are too good to verify and must be shared as soon as possible.
Once Upon a Time in the West
Once Upon a Time in the West. Welp. It’s perfect. This was my second time seeing it all the way through (my first), and I was very lucky to catch it on the big screen. Two things that stood out for me more this time around…. One, the operatic heightening. Straight out of opera, each major character gets a leitmotif in the soundtrack, they’re all introduced in a different way to draw attention to their role, and they’re all pretty unambiguous archetypes: villain, hero, buffoon, hooker with heart of gold. And dang, that score. Two, the recurring hints about time. The movie opens with a shot of a rail schedule, then shifts to a comically, absurdly extended introduction marked by dripping water and creaking windmills. The anxious father who wants to be ready for his beloved’s arrival. Watches checked, appointments made. A capitalist who wants to reach the Pacific coast before his death. A railroad station that must be built on a deadline. Fancy clocks in the financier’s railcar. The clockface in town during a shoot-out. And battles that the hero faces are a sort of countdown: three assassins, then two, then one.
Let’s fly: How to survive air travel
This is how you survive the airport:
Arrive early. Arrive early? Sounds simple. It is — let me show you.
I remember reading somewhere that if you’ve never missed a flight then you’ve wasted too much of your life waiting in airports. Fair point, maybe. But I have to agree, after a few recent flights, that arriving much much earlier than needed – giving over to what might first feel like inconvenience – can create some beautifully peaceful and productive time to work with.
When people say, “I’m the kind of person who,” my heart always sinks
When people say, “I’m the kind of person who,” my heart always sinks. These are formulas, we’ve all got about ten formulas about who we are, what we like, the kind of people we like, all that stuff. The disparity between these phrases and how one experiences oneself minute by minute is ludicrous. It’s like the caption under a painting. You think, Well, yeah, I can see it’s called that. But you need to look at the picture.
Adam Phillips. Filed under: Adam Phillips.
MOONRISE KINGDOM: Wes in Wonderland
I’m on record as not being a huge fan of this particular movie, but damn, Anderson is good at what he does. Cf. David Bordwell discussing The Grand Budapest Hotel. Filed under: Wes Anderson. MOONRISE KINGDOM: Wes in Wonderland
Solaris
I read Stanisław Lem’s Solaris (the new Bill Johnston translation, grade-A uncut straight from the Polish), and enjoyed it for the most part. Not available in paper, so I finally used this Kindle gadget thing. This is a book for ideas. The writing isn’t too special on its own, on a sentence and paragraph level. I could have done with less of the spinning off into academic/history tangents, but I suppose they have their purpose. Reminds me of Borges a bit, that spirit of developing gobs and gobs of history and references. I think the spirit is more ironic here, underscoring how the knowledge of Solaris that humans gathered and theorized for generations really amounts to so little. Now I really want to watch both movies again. I read a lot of this while listening to the soundtrack for The Fountain, which makes a good pairing. Another Lem book I really, really liked was Imaginary Magnitude, which, as a collection of… stories?… offers a lot more variety and more opportunities to have your mind blown.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Really underwhelming. I was so fired up for this after re-watching Rise… and hearing good reviews. I think the best way to summarize this one is that there’s just not much to be curious about. Once you get the early outlines, you could finish the screenplay yourself. Bonus points, though, for good use of xylophone in the score. I also thought it was interesting that they only used a handful of locations for this movie: city, grove, dam, village, apartment. Reminded me of the clashing civilizations/neighbors in The New World. Took me the longest time to realize how I recognized Kodi Smit-McPhee: Let Me In.
Nicely Said: Writing for the Web with Style and Purpose (review)
I read Nicole Fenton and Kate Kiefer Lee’s new book Nicely Said: Writing for the Web with Style and Purpose. Now that I think of it, that subtitle goes against just about everything this tumblr stands for. Good friendly guide, especially if you need advice more along the lines of project structure and how to think about what you’re doing, more so than nuts-and-bolts writing advice.
In Top Gun, it’s always magic hour for the best of the best
For a film that worships the military, and is in turn worshipped by the military, Top Gun seems perversely uninterested in the military—or foreign policy, or warfare—as anything other than a crucible that sweaty, shirtless, constantly showering men must endure on the route to über-awesomeness. The enemy is deliberately shadowy because the real enemy is self-doubt and moral weakness.