What if the mischievous Joel Schumacher had directed Alexander instead of the unsmiling OIiver Stone?

FACT.

@tvaziri.com I love this film and these filmmakers. Check out the human-powered light effects at the end! youtu.be/rj0zD3IuI7g?...

Spinoza’s book on the psychology of emotion is a real hoot. Recommended for the prose, arguments, and heuristic value. He called this book ETHICS because a fly landed on his hand when he was choosing the title. (Okay, not true.) But really, check it out. I forgot which translation is preferred.

I realize many of you have jobs that demand the frequent deployment of persuasion and argument, but if you can, I recommend giving these things up. Also public appraisals of value. Just reply with what you believe are likely facts, and the epistemic steps you took to achieve those factual beliefs.

Many of my truly brilliant friends are very candid without being cruel. Sapolsky talks about how cruel remarks, even when consciously buffered, sink into the reptile brain, for everyone. A tournament culture of invective is just about hairless ape dominance nonsense. You need not participate.

@hern.bsky.social The exploitation of vulnerability is the ineliminable essence of capitalism, yet you will concoct gibberish apologies for it for your entire silly life.

I saw a video with DP Robbie Ryan who clearly had fun, despite the labor, with the Vista Vision. I’m all for any experiment but are we really sure that the Vista Vision look can’t be done digitally? I bet we could fool folks. Like when you make vegan meat for fancy meat chefs and they utterly fail.

Campbell’s also owns Prego, V8 and Pace salsa. Maybe we poors should buy other food items.

Musk is not a parasite. No, no, no. He’s a parasitoid. (Long time listeners know I hate metaphors. This is not a metaphor.)

A movie where you’re from.

How to interest me in sports. Terrifying blades.

RAWHEAD REX (1986, Shudder, #film) Gem! A wry author traveling with his family on a research trip around rural Ireland stumbles upon an eldritch demon terrorizing (and pissing on) the populace. Better scripting and performances than expected balance out the wonkiness. h/t: @scenarist.bsky.social

I found the source of the ants. The holiday peanuts parcel that sat on the patio unnoticed by me for a few days. These wee Phase IV critters know a Trojan horse opportunity when they see one. Or feel one. Or sense one. Stigmergy works! But I have a neocortex. Kind of.

Tonight on TCM #TCM PURPLE NOON (1960) IMHO, René Clément gave us the finest adaptation of Patrica Highsmith's novel THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY. Alain Delon is Ripley par excellence. Highly recommended. 🎥

My dad has seen zero Marvel shows. I’ve seen, who knows, maybe half? Now we are watching them together at my discretion. I must explain dialogue like, “We live in a world where half the population could vanish any moment.” (We started with Shang Chi, one of my favorites, mostly due to Morris.)

Psycho author Robert Bloch wrote a fascinating review of WarGames in 1983, calling it 'outstanding' but criticising its 'amoral' hero. filmstories.co.uk/news/in-1983...

Shhh. For your eyes only. How to avoid AI junk for simple searches. udm14.com

One day on the writerly Zoom calls (that need to resume!) the great @edsolomon.bsky.social teased the great @billyray5229.bsky.social about this. I personally think everyone was very meanypants and Billy is the best. Also I love Volcano.

If you’re such a fan of The Good Wife, as you must be, how many episodes featured Pedro Pascal?

Your next mission is to watch all 35 of the Jack Palance pictures on Tubi.

Has the putty-faced US health secretary started talking about phlogiston, elan vital, and magnets yet? I’ve lost track.

If I ran the Disney zoo, I would replace the AI slop in the credits of The Secret Invasion FORTHWITH. Even if that adds no probable appreciable financial value. What are you even doing, massive entertainment company.

Should I watch Enter the Fat Dragon (2020) or just eat a lot of cinnamon apple cobbler with plentiful icing and BECOME a fat dragon?

@writerlaurabee.bsky.social You can go into the google URL and after search?= you put your search term and after that you put &udm=14 and voila you just get search results like it’s 1999

Sound like a strong civil suit against this hysterical ICE scumbag “B. Thorpe”, who never read the Constitution.

If you’ve Disney and Hulu then the Hulu menu is offered in the Disney app and you may see In A Violent Nature recommended next to Frozen which made me wonder what if Olaf saw In a Violent Nature and would that be disturbing even with his great abilities to recompose and regenerate. Also wtf Disney.

I was watching people of all ages, in all kinds of cars, pull up in front of an institution, and wait, and then hand over packages to people from the institution. It took me some time to figure out. I felt sad, actually. An older person should not be delivering spicy noodles to a twenty year old.

Spot the director!

Yes, I used a metaphor.

BOO Well-monetized YouTubers, who just travel and eat crème brûlée on camera, while saying mmmm so good, and podcasters, who do nothing but yap about makeup, trucks, guns or other people, often have better gear than serious and important independent filmmakers who wear viewfinders like necklaces.

I’m almost glad I periodically make detail-rich historiographic skeets like these. Who can naturally recall everything in the American landfill? #hatm

Being “on the same page” only has a chance of working if everyone involved has the same text. (You can probably find other troubles with this tiresome metaphor.) (I actually find ALL metaphors terrible, but since so many human folks just can’t stop themselves, I accommodate and participate.)

I always loved that Speed had two ace DPs.

Now watching: Down Cemetery Road Because Ruth and Emma of course (Ruth, in anything, getting angrier and angrier with the shabby villains of this world, is the best)

I thought it was about poker!

We see here an array of party favors from the year 2021 CE. First the common medical mask, in two exciting colors; the much sought after KN95; the posh flat N95 from 3M, aka the Aura; the fully developed N95; the rarely seen (and useless) KF94. Not seen here: the sublime duck bill respirator.

Update: I still hate clocks and maps. They are used against us. Time to revolt. Back later.

This is a good, humane and utilitarian argument. As a natural born scavenger, I was nearly persuaded. (As for the angel Dolly — I wish she owned Twitter.) But ultimately I must insist, as the very start of our lengthy and needed national wound debridement, that we BULLDOZE THE BALLROOM.

ICE = worthless trash

BULLDOZE THE BALLROOM. No matter the cost.

Not even folks in my inner circle liked this joke.

Few of us will ever be as cool as Pierre François Marie Louis Boulle. But we can try!

1. These people aren’t actual security. The guy in the inset circle is at best the “bodyguard” in a porn movie. The other two are called “security” but their actual job is to make sure no one gets near her. Anything goes down, very unlikely they’re useful. 2. She doesn’t need security. She wants it.

And everyone around him?

Can 23 days be 23 years?

Hopefully this sickening monstrosity will never be built, and the traitorous bag of pus that initiated it, and his worthless collaborators, both punished harshly for their crimes, and forgotten by a much healthier future America, but in the meantime, let’s get trending BULLDOZE THE BALLROOM.

A lot of these were and are with great folks with the normal human specifications.

Carole Lombard on the November 1931 issue of Motion Picture

I’ve now had all the social interactions I can manage for 2025 and 2026 as well.