I reckon Cuba is about to go down the tubes.
Wild -- Reese Witherspoon shows a lot of range in this flick about struggle. The backpacking made me remember the years I was into backpacking. I wasn't the type to walk in five miles, plop down and set up a tent. From my perspective, it wasn't real backpacking until 10-15 miltes from the trailhead, well past the people wearing sandles and carrying a sack lunch. The sort of journey in Wild is a whole different level of commitment.
IMAX 3D HFR -- That's the format I chose for viewing the latest Hobbit. The high frame rate (48 Hz I believe) and lack of film grain give the slow moving parts of the film an "uncinematic look". Since this film seems to be mostly battle scenes, the 48 Hz is welcome. It allows motion to be smoother.
In the first Hobbit, there were some effects that looked clunkier in 48 Hz than 24 Hz. I attribute this to the fact the 24 Hz, by being clunky, hides clunkiness. There was some of this in Hobbit Part the Third in HFR, but not much.
I don't know whether to attribute it to cinematographic choices, or the 3D, but there were a few scenes that felt like I was looking at a miniature, sort of the effect one sees in tilt-shift without being tilt-shift. This was distracting when it happened.
according to my twitter feed tonight is the first night of jewish christmas.
the other one
someone just posted a bunch of these low budget late 70s - early 80s teen sex comedies. im not sure i can resist. this one sounds familiar but i dont recall seeing it.
Binge watched and very much enjoyed season 1 of Transparent An amazon original, the pilot is free and if you sign up for the free one month trial of their prime service, so are the other episodes.
Uncertain about the uncertainty principle?
should i watch the sure thing or a susan sontag documentary? or maybe the question should be -- will they show daphne zuniga topless on tcm? id better watch to find out.
an oral history of boogie nights.
making an R.M. Felts genuine Southampton country ham from Virginia this holiday season.
spent the night babysitting a friend who has come down with a somewhat debilitating case of marital discord. two things we learned: 1) my years of not keeping up with my intergender studies has diminished my capacity to provide useful advice on such matters beyond suggesting they should seek professional guidance. 2) an ashtray full of cigarettes in the morning smells worse than i remember.
on the plus side, we did find a pretty good hole-in-the-wall burger place in the east village.
this is a word.
The chessboard is really heating up. I'm finding it so interesting to watch Russia maneuver. And, to my eyes, the West flounder. Not saying it's a good thing but just that it's fascinating. Canceling the South Stream pipeline is a gigantic deal that seems to be getting very little attention. Are people hearing about this? I think an actual shooting war with Russia is now a very real possibility. Certainly we are at war in every other way. Yet very little discussion of it that I'm seeing in the media.
