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.

Anaconda! Come on. This would have killed back in the day, sitting around with the brotherhood in one of our living rooms.

It's a reimagining of the original. Jack Black and Paul Rudd want to go back and do a remake of the original movie. They are too clueless to realize they way in over their heads as the head to the Amazon with Thandie Newton and Steve Zahn to round out the cast. Oddly, Rudd plays the Jack Black role and Rudd plays the Jack Black role. It's occasionally amusing as the cast bumps into illegal gold miners. Most of movie is in the trailer with a few scattered scenes of freshness.

It's a cheesy dumb comedy. It's a good brain off flick. And I mean way off.

Yes, The Queen is out of town. Why do you ask?

Galdikas was the last of the 'trimates' - her passing is preceded by Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey. All three women were associated with Louis Leakey and each chose a different primate - Goodall: chimps; Fossey: great apes; Galdikas: orangutans. 

When we took our epic backpack across Asia trip in '97, we were scheduled to stay at Galdikas' research facility in Borneo. We gave a donation which granted us access, and we were to support the research team somehow. The info was intense. Apparently women on their periods would be picked up and raped by the orangs so it was advised to stay in the complex if that was happening. There were all these protocols for safety because we'd be out there in the jungle with the orangs, not to mention the headhunter tribes of Borneo. But as fate would have it, there was a major wildfire in Indonesia and Borneo was downwind, so the research center was closed to visitors. We had to change our plans and ended up in Bali instead, which is a whole other tale. What an adventure working with Galdikas would've been.

One half of Seals & Crofts, probably the only Baha'i rock stars. Surprisingly he was 87. Giving respect for Diamond Girl and Summer Breeze, two great 70s classics. And he played electric mandolin, which is kind of cool.