the luminous outset became the interminable middle

Year in Review, but not: 2021

2021-12-31T21:18:07Z

2021 has been a drawn out blur and I have kept track of nothing. Anything mentioned was strong enough to stick out among the attempts to distract. Thinking on my media consumption for this year, I'd say that I didn't read as much as I wanted, played some fun/great games, contributed a lot of funds to streaming services I don't use enough, and watched some movies. Here's to hoping for 2022...

Games: I did get a XBOX Series S early this year along with Game Pass so I have tried a good amount of games. Out of all of them, Hades has been one of the best experiences entirely. So many people have written about this game, and it has won so many awards, so I don't know what else I can say besides: as someone who is truly terrible at this kind of game, the game teaches you so well and makes failure a ~boon. I love the animation, the music (played the King and the Bull on repeat for months), the voice performances--everything.

Other Games I remember fondly: Boyfriend Dungeon (fun enough, the ending was okay), Scarlet Nexus (yes, I do like fighting flower monstrosities with psychic powers), Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Books: I have not read enough at all.

Movies: tick..tick...Boom! reminded me how much I love Andrew Garfield, surprised me with how restrained it was considering LMM was directing, did make me cry a bit; Spider-man: No Way Home was fun and cute; Dune was such a joy to watch and surpassed my expectations (I have never liked Jason Momoa more); Summer of Soul was a great documentary and concert film.

TV:
Favorites: Squid Game, Word of Honor, Beyond Evil, Station Eleven, Love Life.
Wish I liked more: Wheel of Time (but I will give the 2nd season a try)
Love it now...: Yellowjackets, which makes me love Sundays but I do worry about 5 seasons.

I hope you all have had the best possible year.

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Films watched: Us, Three Identical Strangers, The Favourite, Lady Bird, Vox Lux

2019-04-13T00:45:39Z

Us was a film experience: a Tuesday mid-day ticket with an entire theater to myself and it was grand. My main impression from the film that Lupita was in complete control of her performance, Jordan Peele has gotten better at the visuals, and Winston Duke is amazing. There were definite thrilling, scary parts but I did feel the overexplaining did dampen things towards the end. The twist I suspected from the beginning but that wasn't about tipping the hand as much as me being very genre literate.

Three Identical Strangers was an example of great premise, poor execution.

The Favourite was so good. Fantastic performances from everyone--leads to supporting, excellent costume design, and sharp humor woven throughout. I'm beginning to feel like I enjoy this director's work more when he also hasn't written the script. One of the best Emma Stone performances truly.

Lady Bird-- Saoirse Ronan is one of the most gifted actors of her generation and this movie was definitely in touch with the story it wanted to tell. Chalamet gave a great deadpan teenage boy performance. (He has the range). The family dynamics were really special to watch.

Vox Lux was promoted with Natalie Portman (one of my stealth faves--between Black Swan and Annihilation, I'm always interested in what she does) but she actually doesn't show up until at least a good third of the movie is one. And when she does show up it's with quite the accent. I finished the film, but the how of the popstar's career in the film was so confusing. ( spoilers )

Out of this batch The Favourite was the best and comes highly recommended.

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films watched: hereditary, velvet buzzsaw, little hours, ant man & wasp,hunt for wilderpeople, HFB

2019-02-12T00:55:25Z

(whispers: the real test was not making the first post in 2019, but the second one...)

( Hereditary and Velvet Buzzsaw )

( Little Hours, Ant Man and the Wasp are just fine. Hunt for the Wilderpeople is great but I just don't have much to say )

( High Flying Bird )

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films watched :baby driver, mind the gap, support the girls, bad times at el royale, edge of 17

2019-01-26T20:51:55Z

( brief discussions on Baby Driver, Mind the Gap, Support the Girls, Bad Times at the El Royale, Edge of Seventeen )

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sometimes you do have to fake it 'til you make it

2018-01-15T05:41:40Z

So 2017: bust of a year on many levels.

2017 may have been a low point in my reading and film viewing. So far 2018 has started out better, but I remember my annual hot starts that fall into long stretches of no reading.

Onwards:

Reading:

( Read more... )

Watching: I honestly don't watch that much tv on a regular schedule; it's often netflix or not for me unless it's the Good Place, which I watch religiously. Lovesick is still rather charming and a strong romcom, even if I am squinting at nobody being content being single and for the non-monogamous woman the third lead 'fell for' changing her mind and giving a relationship a go; I sort of hope they both realize that she was right and she does enjoy being single while he realizes he wants the relationship and finds someone else who does as well. Antonia Thomas is still gorgeous.

The End of the F***ING world: Sharp, vivid romance that is completely dependent on the actors' chemistry. Short episodes that use every single minute. Hilarious and painful and near perfect. Deals with some heavy topics.

On the movie front: Atomic Blonde was stylish fun but the plot was 'ehhh'.

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Book Club 2017: A True Novel by Minae Mizumura

2017-01-19T22:06:24Z

(I want to apologize for the lateness of this post. I'm sick and this is the clearest my head has been recently.)

This is a post for the book club some people on my circle run every year. It's very fun and lowkey; and I've found some good books to read. The theme is changed every year.

A True Novel by Minae Mizumura was originally written in Japanese and translated to English. It was very successful in Japan, winning its prestigious Yomiuri Literature Prize.

This novel is a retelling of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, a book that was pretty popular in English courses in the United States (at least when I was in high school) and often misidentified as a love story because the central characters of Heathcliff and Cathy take up so much space throughout the tale.

In short: I do recommend this book, with a note that it is quite long. This post will focus on the first part ‘On Long Island’ in Volume I.

( Read more... )

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year in review 2016: films and tv

2017-01-01T18:33:47Z

Movies

( Read more... )

TV

( Read more... )

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Year in Review 2016 : Books

2017-01-01T15:56:35Z

Another year, another failure to fill my desired challenge, but there’s always this year (she said, as she looks at the list of the past 3 years she also fell short)

My top rated books this year: (all the fives on my goodreads account, which you should totally follow so we could be friends on the site)

( Fun Home, The Bees, Stiff, Prelude to a Bruise, Ms. Marvel vol 2 )

Now for WOMP * WOMP Negativity

( Are We There Yet? and Sleeping Giants )

Not highest rated but wanted to talk about:

( Carry On and Queen of the Night )

For 2017 I want to read more nonfiction, international authors not from Britain, poetry, plays.

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Book Club: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

2016-01-13T02:34:37Z

This post is solely based on the first chapter with me not having read the rest of the book. I wanted to make this post untainted by later events so I can maybe make some (wrong) predictions. Though this post is focused on the first chapter, I have finished the book, so feel free to comment on events beyond the first chapter.

( discussion of the first chapter of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, that I continually call The House on Haunted Hill for reasons beyond me )

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Media Year in Review

2016-01-01T02:30:06Z

I've barely posted this year, but I did want to at least make this post to look back on what I've consumed this year.

( TV & books )

( Film watched in 2015 )

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New Fall Shows

2015-10-08T16:58:10Z

So what is everyone watching?

I tried and stalled with Fear the Walking Dead, but talk about the latest episodes make me want to pick it back up just to see the end. It is only six episodes.

Out of the new Fall shows I've tried Minority Report (it was ok but nothing made me want to return and the low ratings pretty much mean it isn't long for this tv world), Scream Queens (I keep on forgetting when this is on and hulu is not quick to post episodes; I was not that enthused with the first two episodes--Lea Michele was a highlight and the narcissistic boyfriend was good as well-- something about the humor felt like a tired attempt of sharp edginess that feels just a bit dated). Caught half of The Flash and liked it enough though I still haven't seen the last episodes of last season. Sleepy Hollow was good in a way that was tempting, but it's very hard to completely trust it not to go off the rails; I'm just going to enjoy the good moments while they last.

American Horror Story came on last night. IDK. Visually, it is rather arresting and there were moments but I don't know if I'm sticking around for any more. Some links on AHS latest: a review I mostly agree with and a plea for Ryan Murphy to stop which makes me flash back to Glee fandom and laugh.

Still waiting on Supergirl and Fargo.

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Narcos: Ep 1 & stuff

2015-08-29T11:40:08Z

Is anyone watching Narcos, the new netflix show about Pablo Escobar and the era of cocaine Miami and the DEA? I've only seen episode one and liked it well enough. No spoilers (though how much can you spoil a historic event?)

*From season 1 it seems to be mirroring Escobar and a DEA agent; at least the DEA agent is narrating events. At times the voiceover was too much but I don't know how else they could have done it without either expanding the pov to hit on details the narration provides.

* The actor playing Escobar really looks related to Matthew Rhys from The Americans.

* The music, acting, design is all really good. It's definitely a high quality show.

* The guy from GOT, the Dornish prince in the fight, is in this sporting a mustache.

* This isn't my first time seeing a film about this era; I've watched the Cocaine Cowboys series and the one about the female Colombian druglord. So it seems that thirty years is the time in which events can get mainstream dramatization? There's enough distance where it isn't taken to be crass and a certain gloss can be provided.

I do plan to continue on with the series: not at the pace I consumed OITNB (in a day and half) but faster than I watched Daredevil (still not done!).

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Links: us box office superheros and trends // Bring it On 15 years later

2015-08-26T18:30:27Z

Two works by Mark Harris discussing recent US box office trends: Fantastic Four and superheroes in the box office and Four trends from this season. Both are pretty good pieces, though I like the second one more because it's based on actual data--movies that appealed to audiences beyond the coveted young, white male demographic, and had good, targeted marketing (a feature I don't think gets enough attention) worked super well for Universal.

Looking at Bring It On as a very feminist film 15 years (omg my youth!). I miss that era when teen movies were being made of that quality from studios. The Duff maybe has a similar spirit.

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Fear the Walking Dead?

2015-08-24T19:12:41Z

Did anyone watch it? No spoilers, but or me, the pilot dragged and I wish it would adopt a wider focus instead of narrowing in one that one family. The previews of upcoming events does excite and I will see it through. I think it's only 6 episodes so a lot more action should start coming up. I couldn't help but compare to TWD's pilot and how excellent it was on so many levels.

Here is a review full of details for the first episode that describes it well. If it wasn't for the original show, I probably wouldn't stick around; but I could see it possibly working for others.

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links: BoJack Horseman returns, tired trope in this golden age, women sports

2015-07-18T20:26:07Z

BoJack Horseman is back on Netflix for a second season. This one carried on the tone the first developed and I really liked it. Some of the Todd stuff felt like it was a retread but it still worked, just not as well as the other plot lines for the other characters. Here is a post describing its blend of ludicrousness and sadness to great effect.

Linda Holmes on the latest FX show Sex, Drugs & Rock n Roll and some of the dominant tropes of this 'Golden Age of Television' and the exhaustion she at with them. Most of this I agree with; it's not so much that the tropes shouldn't exist, but why is it such a battle to see other tropes with a shot or applied beyond the standard character type that they have been?

Why I'm Done Defending Women's Sports works to move beyond the notion of having to defend the existence of women's sports whenever moments like the World Cup happen.

This writer also equated Serena Williams to Muhammad Ali and makes a decent case for it.

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Bookclub: Left Hand of Darkness

2015-07-15T13:16:16Z

This is a post for a summer book club hosted by skuf.

( Left Hand of Darkness discussion )

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tv talk: zoo, humans, catastrophe, etc

2015-07-04T18:00:23Z

Zoo - a summer show on CBS about animals somehow deciding it's time to take it to the humans all at once is odd to watch. Because it's on CBS no gore can be shown so there's a lot of bloodied mouths, menacing groups of cats, and stalking sounds and people screaming at their impending deaths. Some of the dialogue choices are poor and there are definitely stock characters in this. Seeing other actors who were in excellent shows in this really drives home the importance of writing.

Catastrophe - is a hilarious comedy on Amazon and only 6 episodes. The main characters feel like actual adults and it holds its tone so well. There is vomit (ugh why) but the show has been a pleasure to watch. If you've watched enough shows you can play 'spot that actor', which adds another level of fun.

Humans - really good. The robot thing could feel sort of played out but they are coming at it from multiple angles and there are good performances in this. The main robot (the nanny for the family) did this super creepy laugh in the first episode that I just want to hear again. It's only been one episode, but so far so good.

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links: wwc, a moment, netflix what are you doing?

2015-06-21T01:59:03Z

Excellent piece on the state of the USWNT. Currently watching the Women's World Cup when I can and it's been fun. There are expectations that make the US a favorite, and maybe I'm caught up in the moment, but Germany looked like they were existing on another level against Sweden.

In American sports, as in American life, winning changes your character without changing your character. It can’t alter who you are, but it can upgrade all of your adjectives. A flamboyant showman hits the shot that a selfish ballhog misses. A relentlessly competitive leader is a bully plus a touchdown drive. Some of this is the nature of sports, which is a business of what works; some of it is human nature, which always wants to see success as a vindication of inner qualities.1 The real link between character and accomplishment is often dim and hard to articulate, but we find little parables everywhere. To inspire, all you have to do is score.

Piece questioning Netflix's later comedy announcement. I, too, paused at the Kutcher/Masterson announcement but as long as Netflix is making shows like OITNB, Daredevil, and Sense8 and bringing over stuff like Scrotal Recall and Peaky Blinders, I'll just ignore the stuff I don't care for. I do wonder if a subscription hike is coming my way.

Mark Harris discussing the prominence of trans narratives in American pop culture with reference to a moment earlier in history that shows how much has changed in some decades.

A sports figure comes out as transgender, and the general public is riveted by her story, which is met with everything from bigotry to curiosity to empathy. All at once, the subject seems to be everywhere from op-ed pages to dinner-table conversations. Transgender stories – this time fictional – start to gain a toehold in popular culture. The highest-rated sitcom on network TV takes some tentative steps toward exploring the fluidity of gender identity by having a gay cross-dressing performer as a recurring character. A popular medical drama wins an Emmy nomination for a two-part episode about a doctor who undergoes gender-reassignment surgery.

The year is 1976.

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link & catch up

2015-06-05T01:24:11Z

Good read contrasting the fortunes of the male and female stars of Brazilian soccer

Movies: saw Mad Max: Fury Road and really liked it. It started full throttle and pretty much never let up; it was a very different pace of film that I thoroughly enjoyed. Yuletide, anyone?

Still need to see: Pitch Perfect 2 and AOU. Want to see Spy

TV: behind on everything. Want to see the Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell adaptation. Did not enjoy the Wolf Hall adaptation as much as I had hoped.

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so yeah: Mad Men, gaming, etc

2015-05-04T03:56:19Z

I haven't posted since February and even with my expectations of lower posting, I am still kind of shocked I've put nothing on here for so long. The main thing that has changed is that I'm working (yay/oh no) and that conflicted parenthetical is all I'm going to say about that. Beyond that, here are some things:

Gaming: someone needs to take my cc when it comes to humble bundle. Recently bought Dragon Age: Inquisition, Child of Light, and Mass Effect 2. Have already logged 50 hrs on DA:I and kind of really like it. I'm mostly new to this level of gaming but am having fun even if there is a fair amount of grinding and my inability to read maps is doing me in.

TV: Started Daredevil (liked it), finished Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (liked it too).

Mad Men: The most I have to say about this show is that it feels very indulgent for good and bad. I am enjoying it mostly but am ready to see it go.

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Dodging lollipops and other (non) catastrophes

2015-02-07T14:59:30Z

What is the logic of moving the post button WAY down?

(I do have that pairing meme to do which will be forthcoming)

So my phone is pushing this update but I am always wary of recent updates, especially for things I uses often, like a phone. I'm still scarred by my laptop losing all sound thanks to a Win8 update.

Planning to see A Most Violent Year and Jupiter Ascending this weekend. I thought about Seventh Son but it looks so dull and generic and needlessly dark visually.

So Sleepy Hollow: I checked in on the most recent episode and it wasn't bad, but I still think I'm done with it. There was a comment on the AV review talking about the increased 'hero/damsel' dynamic tone and that's all I could think of when Ichabod goes hard on that warlock dude and makes a point about him hurting his wife, who is no regular witch. I still think this show was hurt by changing showrunners and the increased episode count. I will probably watch the season finale but I'm in a situation where there's so much television that it's hard to keep on with shows that I just don't like that much.

Planning to watch: The 100 (season 1), Jane the Virgin, Fresh off the Boat (maybe), catch up with Agent Carter, Broad City

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Media check in, valued works, too much tv,etc

2015-01-21T00:07:44Z

This new beta create entries page is huge. I do like the replying on Reading page function. I haven't encountered any new code stuff yet.

A few days ago the Fox executives went to the TCA and discussed their shows; and their main comment on Sleepy Hollow was that they were seeking to correct the creative mistakes and make it less serial. For me, the main issue was the shift of focus from Ichabod and Abbie and their chemistry (platonic or not), ill formed villain (I don't know why these shows don't realize having a defined villain is crucial), Henry and Katrina (and the sloppy writing around them). I don't understand what it is about a show that makes a team change what was already working. With the latest show and its shuffling of Abbie to the side has just made me realize I am done with Sleepy Hollow. I may check in on the third season, but there is so much pulling my attention that I don't stick around for shows I don't actually like anymore.

Speaking of tons of tv: 1715 shows on U.S. primetime hours (8-11pm)! That is so much. Naturally, I thought on fandom and niche seems to be the standard. Megafandoms are not the most common, and I see them becoming more rare. With the glut of new shows, availability of older shows via internet through various means, other media like books, video games, movies. Fandom is a many splintered thing. An interesting note was the suggestion that shows do some fandom engagement year round like Orphan Black and other genre shows to keep fan interest high to ensure their return during hiatus.

Post on the devaluing of stories that don't feature men in the film industry. It isn't anything new but with the recent Oscar noms, a flurry of pieces have come out about Selma and Wild's lack of major accolades.

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Links: CYOA twitter style, and TV talk

2015-01-13T21:40:57Z

This Choose Your Own Adventure game on twitter is taking me back. I want more of this format. I've died three times now, but I persist.

Pretty good piece pulling back on the rhetoric about the new age of television with Netflix and Amazon playing. This is centered on American model of television distribution, but since these shows are exported, I thought it is interesting beyond that.

Good examination on what the major networks (ABC, FOX, NBC, CW) did to rejuvenate themselves this season. I've left NBC behind because their latest shows just aren't to my taste; CW surprisingly was my favorite this year with The Flash, Jane the Virgin, The 100 (still need to check out), Arrow; Fox, the positive was Gotham in a sense, and Sleepy Hollow was a disappointment for me. I still need to check out Empire.

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Year in Review: Fandom &Movies

2014-12-31T23:35:36Z

I was supposed to do a post each day, but, like I have done with most other things this year, I fell behind and now am combining these last two.

( year in review for fandom and movies in 2014 )

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Year in Review: Books

2014-12-30T01:45:06Z

Books

I fell down on reading full books this year. Not counting poetry journals and lit mags, I only finished 36 books this year which is not my lowest point, but it is not where I wanted to end up this year. I like to at least do 50 complete books a year, preferably with a range of nonfiction and fiction, across different genres. Oh, well, here’s to next year.

( lowest, highest, some extra books; feel free to talk about any of them with me )

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