The opening act sucks - a DJ dropping messy bass bombs, an emo singer with a scythe.
I’m enjoying the costuming. Merch line is cleaning up.
Young crowd - 20s - a lot in white face paint with black highlights. Skull & crossbones theme.

We had a big 50th anniversary celebration for employees at Apple Park Tuesday evening. We even had a musical guest!

This 2017 series is now on all the free w/ads streamers: Tubi, Plex, PlutoTV. it might even be on Kanopy w/o ads (which would be much better). I've had this on my watch list for probably 5-6 years, but never got around to it and watched it on Tubi. It's a period drama: early 1800's England (dirty Londoners, lots of mud and muck). Only 8 episodes. Good cast, good writing/acting. Lots of intrigue and plot twists. 

The story begins with a funeral of a Mr. Delaney. During the service, the long lost, thought dead son (Tom Hardy) enters and throws a wrench into the entire estate transfer. The late Delaney senior owned what is now Vancouver and the adjacent coast, by way of treaty with the natives. Everybody wants it. The East India Co, the Brits, the Americans. Hilarity ensues. 

This is a Ridley Scott production, and I've been on/off about some of the others (eg: Prometheus), but this was very good. Very Masterpiece Theater. 

Really recommended.


--tg

The D00Maestro informed me over IG that our former AFS coworker passed on Sunday. I figure I should start this obit since we both knew him. 

I haven't seen Glenn since we left AFS back in the mid 90s(?) but we'd swap the infrequent comment on each other's sitonmyfacebook now and again. I knew he was having health issues. He had many stories of when he was a bouncer at a strip club. He was also a surprisingly talented musician. Another of the AFS lost boys gone...

A live action based on an anime, I’ve read this is a prequel (the anime is set in modern times - this is set in medieval Japan and the main heroine is the ancestor of the character of the same name in the anime). It’s female strong, clearing the Bechdel test by a long-shot. A young gal has Thor powers in that she can emit electricity (using a 90s special effect). There’s the fox clan of ninjas that wear white fox masks (masked ninjas can be slain without regard to reuse because the mask obscures repeats. And there’s another clan with goofy anime villains, a gal with a jian. A big dude wifh a gnarly mace, and plenty of ninjas with swords. The fights are ok, decent complexity and not too bloody. There’s an early gal on gal sword fight. Tbis stars the legendary Yasuake Kubota as the clan leader. Enjoyed it overall, enough thst I’ll check out the sequel when it comes. Not great but good enough for me to check out the sequel. Theres a lot of father daughter dynamics which always resonates. 

Mildly D00M recommended.

After Tara completes the bar, she'll have a two month break. She's planning to travel and we're supporting this as part of her graduation present. We've been discussing plans for a few months now, and we're on the cusp of buying airline tickets. The plan so far is for me and her to got to Japan for two weeks - Tokyo & Kyoto - then I return home because two weeks is as much as I can get off. Tara really wants to travel on her own for a bit, so she's planning to go onward to Okinawa, and then to South Korea. She''l spend almost a month on the road. 

Needless to say, we're both excited for it. Tara is too focused on graduating and switching to Bar prep mode. For me, it's a major bucket list box to check off. I've been in Narita airport in transit but that's it for Japan. Stacy has already been and won't be joining us (one of us has to tend to Yuki and his meds). 

More to come...

https://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFo...2#pid83102

Vince Vaughn is a gangster who has traveled back in time to right some wrongs. It had some good ideas, but it could have been much much better. It feels very "Hollywood" - like people in the business phoned it in. It tried to be a little to funny and didn't always land its jokes. It tried to have a could "songs you know from that era soundtrack" but the songs weren't that good. It often had odd jump cuts to a memory sequence that just seemed abrupt. 

And in the end, the time paradox doesn't seem to be respected fully.

Meh.

--tg

Music? Art?

Quote:Silvesterchlausen
Andrew Norman Wilson
Silvesterchlausen is a mysterious tradition that takes place every New Year in Switzerland’s Appenzell. Groups of six men dress in ornate costumes and engage in wordless, polyphonic yodeling and rhythmic bell clanging. The ritual has been performed for at least 500 years, but nobody knows how or why it began.

Boys form groups of “Chläus” and continue throughout their lives until the members are too old to withstand the physical toll of the 18 hour days. In the preceding month, costume preparation and yodeling practice takes over. During this “Chläuse Fever,” the bonds between members of each group are more important than family/marital bonds.

On New Year’s, Chläuse sew a thread from house to house, binding the community together again each year. Villagers serve them mulled wine to keep them warm and festive.

Because the tradition lacks a definitive meaning, this film immerses viewers in its sensory dimensions.

https://letterboxd.com/film/silvesterchlausen-2025/

Nuremberg. It's a battle of wits between Rami Malik's Psychiatrist  and Russell Crowe's Herman Göring set agains the backdrop of the Nuremberg trials held in 1946. Michael Shannon is the presiding prosecutor determined to hold the first of their kind war crimes trials to make the Nazis pay for what they did.

Malik's psychiatrist is dragooned into doing psychological profiles of the 20 or so prisoners to make sure they don't commit suicide and to find their weakness for trial. Göring knows he is smarter than all of them and is looking for a way out.

The movie hops between the psychological drama and historic scenes to show what happened at Nuremberg. The worst part coming during the trial when actual footage from the concentration camp is shown. It was hard to keep watching and it seemed like it went on forever.

At the end, there is a big message about Nazis never really going away which seemed directed at the situation we find ourselves in today.

Great cast if a bit preachy. No sword fights.