Leftovers & links & reviews without spoilers
♦ I didn’t know there was a guidebook for making bad movies.
♦ Sam Neill as James Bond.
♦ O brave new world, that has such marvels in it: Ads and screens on grocery refrigerator doors,
instead of glass you can look through. I haven’t seen this tech yet in
real life, but I sent an email to the store where I always
shop: “Please never never never install these.”♦ Angel on My Shoulder
(1946) — I’ve always disliked Paul Muni, and he’s reliably annoying in
this movie, overacting and slathering on an over-the-top tough guy
accent. Luckily, his character dies almost immediate, but then
tragically, he’s sent to Hell and Satan gives him a second chance on
Earth. Claude Rains has fun as Satan, and judging from the other
performers and the jaunty music, this is supposed to be a light comedy,
but Muni is not in on the joke and I’d had enough halfway through.
♦ Talking
to people is something I generally don’t do, and I especially hate
talking to people on the phone. I would pee on Alexander Graham Bell’s grave. There’s
never a cell phone in my pocket, because I don’t want to be easily
reachable anytime anywhere, whenever anyone on Earth dials my digits. I understand, vaguely, that you can tweet or shop or watch movies on your phone, but for me,
that’s not enough to overcome the intrusion of a phone ringing on my body, even if
it rings the 1812 Overture.
At home there’s a landline, but I
abhor it and ignore it as much as feasible. Outgoing calls? Maybe once a
month. Incoming calls? Basically, no. The phone is unplugged. It’s only for emergencies — 9-1-1, or pizza. If you call, you’ll hear it ring until you hang up, but I won’t hear it at all. No, you can’t leave a message, because then you’d expect me to call you back, and that ain’t happening.
Yesterday,
though, I was expecting a call. It couldn’t be avoided, so the phone
was plugged in, and I experienced a few hours of ‘normal’. It was awful. The phone rang and rang all morning — first
a prerecorded sales pitch, then a wrong number, then some political
campaign, then ‘Judy’ from ‘the car service center’, and then, finally,
the phone call I’d needed to receive.After
hanging up, I stupidly forgot to immediately unplug the phone, and my
cousin called a few minutes later. I was still sitting in the same
chair at the same desk, and from a lifetime of stupid indoctrination, I stupidly picked it
up and said “Hello?” What a damned fool thing to do. I regretted it, soon, and for the rest of my
life. It
was my cousin. Sigh. Love the guy, but he’s the exact opposite of my
stoic self, always eager to talk until Tuesday about absolutely nothing.
It was one minute of Good to hear from you followed by twenty-two minutes of Is it over yet? before I found my testicles and said, “B-bye,” and unplugged the phone, half an hour too late.It amazes me that people
willingly stop whatever they’re doing, and talk to anyone who calls. They’ll obediently get out of a comfortable chair to answer these ‘phone’ things. Why?
♦ Here’s an interesting article about a 1940s exorcism
conducted by Jesuit priests in St Louis, where one of the priest kept
detailed notes that William Peter Blatty later built his novel The Exorcist around. ♦ Jane Russell sketching a portrait of Marilyn Monroe on the set of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).
♦ Double Exposure
(1944) — This is a comedy/murder mystery about a
gossip magazine run by a health-nut, and a new photographer they’ve
hired to get the juiciest pictures. Some of the comedy is funny, but
most falls flat, and then the photographer pre-Photoshop-fakes a
picture, which lands her in jail. Implausible, uninteresting.♦ Star Trek’s first gay couple that wasn’t. ♦ This trekkie has put together a montage of the title animations
from all the Star Trek movies, that made me remember when I cared about
Star Trek, which was less and less as the list goes on.
♦ They Made Me A Criminal
(1939) — Nice guy boxer wins the lightweight title, then gets fooled
into thinking he’s killed someone in the drunken party after the fight.
The movie gets stupid quickly, as several characters make stupid
decisions, and the boxer follows some of the dumbest legal advice ever
filmed.Claude Rains is a forensics cop with something to prove, though,
and you can’t go wrong with Rains, so I wanted to stick with it to the
stupid end.But then the Dead End Kids showed up — they were a phenomenon I’ve never understood, where a bunch of white adolescent
thugs appeared in random late-1930s movies as if that was a good thing.
Usually they’re in New York City, but this time they’re picking fruit in
Arizona. And I am outta here.
 |
| (click to enlarge) |
♦ Got cubed?♦ This might be Christopher Nolan’s best movie. ♦ The evolution of the scrollbar.♦ Mystery links — like life itself, there’s no knowing where you’re going:
—①—
—③—
🧁 ☕ 🍩
You’re invited to add anything below, on any topic.
🍩 ☕ 🧁 7/20/2021
Leave a Reply