The Big Sleep (1978) **

Philip Marlowe in London is an interesting premise but Mitchum turns in a lackluster performance and the supporting cast is uninteresting with the exception of Ms. Clark. The director seems too concerned that all the plot pieces fit and viewers are kept informed as to who killed who and why with the result being a lack of atmosphere.

Brooklyn (2015) **

Old fashioned weepie, completely unbelievable, yet almost moving at the end. The magic of movies!

While the City Sleeps (1956) *

Strange hybrid of psycho killer on the loose and office politics infighting never appears believable or even interesting.

David Lynch: ‘You gotta be selfish. It's a terrible thing’ | Film | The Guardian

I ask Lynch how he manages to inspire such loyalty, despite such strict rationing of human contact – from his collaborators, friends, even his exes. He drops his cigarette on the floor and stubs it out with a boot before answering. “I like to have some people around. If I was totally alone I think I’d get funny, and not in a humorous way.”

As a father and husband he has often been absent, he concedes. “You gotta be selfish. And it’s a terrible thing. I never really wanted to get married, never really wanted to have children. One thing leads to another and there it is.”

That sounds like regret, until he elaborates. “I did what I had to do. There could have been more work done. There are always so many interruptions.”

Macao (1952) **

Pretty nifty little noir, thanks to the stars, despite the fact that the making of the picture was a more interesting story.

Ugetsu (1953) **

Nicely produced morality tale from 16th century Japan. Too simplistic, but some lovely black and white images.

Carol (2015) ***

Two terrific leads overpower so-so production.

The Entertainer (1960) **

Lord Larry is good as usual in an unusual role and that keeps it interesting. That and the kitschy seaside milieu right before The Fab Four changed everything for England.

Nanogirl Michelle Dickinson: Is banning plastic bags bad for the environment? - NZ Herald

Surprisingly, although trees may seem more natural than crude oil, converting hardwood into paper requires a resource-heavy pulping process that uses large amounts of water, energy and chemicals, which can emit toxic and hazardous chemicals into air and water. This was confirmed in a report by the US Department of Energy.

Based on current calculations, the environmental impact of one single-use plastic bag equals five uses of a thicker LDPE plastic bag, four uses of a paper bag, 14 uses of a polypropylene non-woven bag (the reusable ones you can buy at the supermarket today) and 173 uses for a cotton reusable bag.

The global warming impact is not the only factor that determines how environmentally friendly each bag option is. Photos of turtles eating plastic bags are a strong advertisement for how littered our oceans are.

Government research studies in the US and Australia found that single-use plastic bags only account for around 1 per cent of the litter found. Closer to home, a Sustainable Coastlines Queen St drain survey found cigarette packaging, beverage bottles and food containers to be the biggest challenges when it comes to litter.

Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) **

Distractedly color-corrected with amber (golden reflections, get it?) and featuring some to-the-edge-of-parody performances from the leads, this sort of contrived story can work in a novel but not here. I understand Huston thought a lot of this picture but it's just not believable.

Red-Headed Woman (1932) **

Some witty banter and a welcome pre-Code ending (bad behavior ends up paying) notwithstanding, this is not an enjoyable watch since the guys are so feckless and Harlow so unrelentingly ambitious, fatigue sets in.

It (2017) *

A perfect example of a contemporary Hollywood film: a near complete lack of imagination and too damn long! Newcomer Sophia Lillis is a real find though.

A SON SPEAKS OUT By Moses Farrow

To the actors who have worked with my father and have voiced regret for doing so: You have rushed to join the chorus of condemnation based on a discredited accusation for fear of not being on the “right” side of a major social movement. But rather than accept the hysteria of Twitter mobs, mindlessly repeating a story examined and discredited 25 years ago, please consider what I have to say. After all, I was there – in the house, in the room – and I know both my father and mother and what each is capable of a whole lot better than you.

To my sister Dylan: Like you, I believe in the power of speaking out. I have broken my silence about the abuse inflicted by our mother. My healing began only after getting away from her. And what she has done to you is unbearable. I wish you peace, and the wisdom to understand that devoting your life to helping our mother destroy our father’s reputation is unlikely to bring you closure in any kind of lasting way.

Finally, to my mother: One thing you always said you appreciated about me was my ability to listen. I listened to you for years and held your truth above all others. You once said to me, “It’s not healthy to hold onto anger.” Yet here we are, 26 years later. I’m guessing your next step will be to launch a campaign to discredit me for speaking out. I know it comes with the territory. And it’s a burden I am willing to bear.

But, after all this time, enough is enough. You and I both know the truth. And it’s time for this retribution to end.

The Last of Sheila (1973) ***

Clever whodunit with a beautiful all-star cast and a proper mid-70's vibe, but cheaply shot and produced.

Battle of the Sexes (2017) ***

Well acted with good period production design. Recaptures some of the feel of the time which is all you can hope for with most bio-pics.

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) **

It looks great but the lack of any substance behind the fantasy images mutes the overall effect.

Intermezzo (1936) **

Overacted weepy notable for being able to hear Ms. Bergman in her native Swedish.

White House leakers leak about leaking - Axios

"Otherwise," the official added, "you have to realize that working here is kind of like being in a never-ending 'Mexican Standoff.' Everyone has guns (leaks) pointed at each other and it's only a matter of time before someone shoots. There's rarely a peaceful conclusion so you might as well shoot first."

Henry Siegman: Two Terrorisms LRB 24 May 2018

The invocation of Israel’s ‘sovereign right’ is the big lie at the heart of America’s responsibility for the collapse of the peace process. In Gaza, as in the West Bank beyond the pre-1967 armistice line, Israel is acting not in accordance with its sovereign right to protect itself, but to protect its occupation. What Israel’s military restores when it quells Palestinian protests is not law and order, but illegality and repression, reinforcing its theft of Palestinian territory in order to preclude the possibility of a Palestinian state, a goal it has achieved.

Je t'aime, je t'aime (1968) **

Interesting attempt at trying to tell a story with a different narrative structure, done more successfully in other films.

I Feel Pretty (2018) **

Amusing rom-com teases about stretching the genre's parameters but returns to the tried and true formula.

My American Uncle (1980) **

The stories are not compelling enough to overcome the heavy-handed setups describing the theories of M. Laborit.

All the Money in the World (2017) **

Overlong, very Scott-like directed flick becomes a lesson in how to carry a picture by Mr. Plummer.

Once-Adventurous Salmon Can’t Believe She Ended Up Moving Back To Birthplace, Having A Bunch Of Kids

“I was carefree and always up for going wherever the sea current took me, so never in a million years did I ever think I’d be back in this old stream starting a big family,” said the expecting mother of 2,133, noting that returning to the place where she grew up and settling down was the furthest thing from her mind while she was young and daring, traveling thousands of miles across the sea and risking the dark, seal-infested waters off Greenland in search of a little excitement. “Growing up seeing salmon after salmon give up their independent lives in the ocean to come back and have babies, I vowed to never let that happen to me—but I guess things change. Maybe after my children leave the nest, I’ll take a trip to Newfoundland and get into some trouble like I did in the good ol’ days.” At press time, sources confirmed that the salmon had died less than a week after spawning.

I Know Which Country the U.S. Will Invade Next

This leaves only one question: Who will be next on the list of U.S. illegal invasions cloaked in bullshit justifications? Well, last week, Iran finally did it: It switched from the dollar to the euro. And sure enough, this week, the U.S. military industrial complex, the corporate media and Israel all got together to claim that Iran is lying about its nuclear weapons development. What are the odds that this news would break within days of Iran dropping the dollar? What. Are. The. Odds?

Sacramento coroner releases Stephon Clark autopsy, disputing he was shot mostly in back - SFGate

The March 18 death of the 22-year-old Clark in his grandmother’s backyard has sparked weeks of protests and called into question the officers’ tactics and decision to shoot. A central point of contention, which could be critical to prosecutors weighing whether to file criminal charges against the officers, is whether Clark was in fact advancing toward officers, as police have said.

And of course, as we are all fully aware, advancing toward officers unarmed is punishable by death.

The Big Sleep (1946) ***

You can't beat Bogie, Bacall and Chandler. Straight noir fails to transcend its genre though.

The Edge of the World (1937) ***

Director Michael Powell hones his visual flair and knack for casting in this lean tale of a remote Hebridean people coping with modernity. Some stunning images.

Fracture (2007) **

Slick and engaging how-dun-it but it's over art directed and designed. The lighting becomes very distracting instead of illuminating or even beautiful for its own sake.

Man from Reno (2014) ***

Well executed mystery makes good use of San Francisco locations and an adept, mostly non-white, cast. Refreshing.

Isle of Dogs (2018) ***

A little overboard with the extreme closeups, but enjoyable homage to Japanese pop culture from the 50's and 60's.

Barbara Ehrenreich: Why I'm Giving Up on Preventative Care | Literary Hub

So I grudgingly conceded that undergoing the test, which is noninvasive and covered by my insurance, might be preferable to immobility and institutionalization. The result was a diagnosis of “osteopenia,” or thinning of the bones, a condition that might have been alarming if I hadn’t found out that it is shared by nearly all women over the age of 35. Osteopenia is, in other words, not a disease but a normal feature of aging. A little further research, all into readily available sources, revealed that routine bone scanning had been heavily promoted and even subsidized by the drug’s manufacturer. Worse, the favored medication at the time of my diagnosis has turned out to cause some of the very problems it was supposed to prevent—bone degeneration and fractures. A cynic might conclude that preventive medicine exists to transform people into raw material for a profit-hungry medical-industrial complex.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) ****

Another odd fable from director Yorgos Lanthimos in his inimitable deadpan style. Always interesting and thought provoking if at times difficult to watch.

UPDATE 01/24/2024: This is a masterpiece in every aspect.

I, Tonya (2017) ****

Upfront about its shaky veracity, this biopic offers outstanding performances, fine casting, and crisp direction. The skating sequences are done exceptionally well.

The Breadwinner (2017) **

Earnest, well-intentioned animated tale of survival in Taliban controlled Afghanistan. Well-made but the relentless oppression makes for difficult viewing.

Danny Ray Thomas, an unarmed black man, shot to death by deputy in Houston - The Washington Post

“According to witnesses, Thomas was walking in the middle of the intersection of Imperial Valley and Greens Rd. with his pants around his ankles, talking to himself and hitting vehicles as they passed by,” the Houston Police Department said in a statement. Thomas struck a white vehicle, and a physical altercation ensued. A passing deputy stopped to disrupt the disturbance, the police said.

“The deputy gave Thomas verbal commands to stop, which he ignored and continued to advance toward the deputy. Fearing for his safety, the deputy discharged his duty weapon, striking Thomas once in the chest,” the department stated.

There used to be a great deal of paperwork and penalty for even discharging your weapon let alone killing an unarmed person. Now just say "I feared for my safety" and you get a medal.

Police shoot, kill man in backyard of south Sacramento home - SFGate

During that pursuit the subject turned toward our officers with both arms out and had an object pointed at our officers and our officers believed it was a firearm and they feared for their safety,” Chandler said. “And they fired their weapons to basically protect themselves.”

Family members told KCRA the home belonged to the man’s grandparents and he frequently stays there.

Family said the man was trying to get inside of the home, but they didn’t know why he didn’t have a key to the house Sunday night.

The man died on the scene.

Investigators did not find a firearm at the scene. The only item found near the man was a cellphone.

This is what happens when you train policemen as if they are combatants in a guerrilla war. And it is getting worse.

I, Cringely Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and our personal data - I, Cringely

Much like Nigerian spammers purposely including spelling errors in their emails to trap “dumb” people —the quizzes on Facebook about “Which Star Wars character are you?” are there just to get you to authorize them. Then they go harvest your data. The authorization is built into the terms of service when you take the test.

So don’t take any Facebook quizzes, surveys, or tests — EVER.

The aspect of this story that ought to be of most concern to Facebook members is that once I have authorized someone to use my Facebook data I have authorized them to use not only my data but also that of all my Facebook friends!

As of this morning I have 2,980 Facebook friends. If I was stupid enough to authorize the release of my data I’d be authorizing the release of all the data on 2,980 other people, too. Now maybe I have more Facebook connections than most people, but you can see how getting only a few thousand survey responses can yield hundreds of thousands of records.

I’m told the average active Facebook member has 250 friends, so one person signing up is like getting 250 full and complete profiles. It’s such a broken system with no way to ever opt out.

Behind the Lens: Isabelle Huppert on "Claire's Camera" | Interviews | Roger Ebert

I love the naturalistic simplicity and ease of “Claire’s Camera,” which is also true for other Hong Sang-soo films. That was perhaps a nice change of pace for you too after “Elle."

It’s always wonderful to make films with Hong Sang-soo, because he has such an unusual way of making movies that doesn’t resemble anyone in any manner. There is no script [to start with]; he’d give you the scenes one after another each morning. But on the other hand, nothing is improvised. He doesn’t change the dialogue, and there is no improvisation. What’s really fascinating is, (this is my second film with Hong Sang-soo, I did “In Another Country” with him in 2012); he has quite an amazing way of doing things in such a short amount of time. Nothing is fast; we have time to do things, but there is a very slow pace within a very short amount of time. Very interesting.


Does he pull his actors in to craft the story as part of his process?

No, he just says, “this is what we’re doing” and we do it. But it creates a certain atmosphere [among actors]. He’s like a magician actually. Even though there is no script and we don’t know the story, we know enough day-by-day, scene-by-scene and line-by-line. It’s enough for us; we don’t need to know the general storyline. The scenes between all actors are so strong and defined. The way he combines lightness and depth … Sometimes it’s very funny, and sometimes it’s very moving. You feel that in the texture of the film, one scene after the other. It’s very nice on the surface, but underneath, there is always something very emotional and moving. You feel that very strongly and that’s very exciting for the actors. You can stay on several levels, [mixing comedy and drama].

The Salesman (2016) **

Interesting look at contemporary Tehran life, but could have used some editing. Well acted morality play.

Mute (2018) **

The actors are top-notch but the film, a future-noir about an Amish mute searching for his missing girlfriend (believe it or not), is over plotted and over long.

What I'm Working On: Why you didn't do that thing you're sure you did | Duke Today

You mean, what you want to be true?

Not necessarily. You almost never have control over the process of filling up or reconstructing your memories. Unbeknownst to you, the process operates probabilistically. Given your past experiences and knowledge, your memory system gives you the most likely thing that could have happened to help you fill any gaps at the time of retrieval. Most of the time the final product coincides with what actually happened, so it is true. But sometimes it does not, in which case we talk about false memories. I think most of our memories are reconstructed in this way, and many of them are false, we just don’t notice.

Stephen Hawking, modern cosmology's brightest star, dies aged 76 | Science | The Guardian

Hawking was driven to Wagner, but not the bottle, when he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 1963 at the age of 21. Doctors expected him to live for only two more years. But Hawking had a form of the disease that progressed more slowly than usual. He survived for more than half a century and long enough for his disability to define him. His popularity would surely have been diminished without it.

David Foster Wallace and the Horror of Neuroscience - The Millions

By the end of the story the strong impression is that Neal’s condition is but a particularly acute version of a basic human predicament. As he puts it, it’s “not as if this is an incredibly rare or obscure type of personality.” In the modern neuroscientific paradigm, Neal’s suspicion that “in reality I actually seemed to have no true inner self” is absolutely correct. There is really nothing outlandish about Neal’s fears; within Oblivion’s neuropessimism, they are simple truisms. We do experience time poorly; language is in many ways a weak tool. The same goes for his fear that he is “unable to love:” from a hard Darwinian viewpoint, we are all unable to love, really—or more accurately, what we think we are doing when we love is actually not loving at all as we understand that word. Neal recognizes this himself: “we are all basically just instruments or expressions of our evolutionary drives, which are themselves the expressions of forces that are infinitely larger and more important than we are.”

Saturated fat does not clog the arteries: coronary heart disease is a chronic inflammatory condition, the risk of which can be effectively reduced from healthy lifestyle interventions | British Journal of Sports Medicine

Preventing the development of atherosclerosis is important but it is atherothrombosis that is the real killer
The inflammatory processes that contribute to cholesterol deposition within the artery wall and subsequent plaque formation (atherosclerosis), more closely resembles a ‘pimple’ (figure 1). Most cardiac events occur at sites with <70% coronary artery obstruction and these do not generate ischaemia on stress testing.4 When plaques rupture (analogous to a pimple bursting), coronary thrombosis and myocardial infarction can occur within minutes. The limitation of the current plumbing approach (‘unclogging a pipe’) to the management of coronary disease is revealed by a series of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) which prove that stenting significantly obstructive stable lesions fail to prevent myocardial infarction or to reduce mortality.

I would wager the decrease in sugar/refined carb consumption is the most significant factor in the results.

Broadway Danny Rose (1984) ****

Certainly one of if not THE best Allen feature. Hilarious, superbly cast, and features perhaps Ms. Farrow's finest performance, way against type. Allen's direction is imaginative and original and never better.

Wind River (2017) **

Well acted procedural involving reservation life vividly creates an uncompromising Wyoming wilderness. A bit over written in parts but overall well done.

The Couch Trip (1988) ***

Sharply written, this satire/screwball comedy is very underrated, featuring an all star cast and top notch director as well as the lovely Donna Dixon.

I, Cringely We win, you lose: How shareholder value screwed the middle class - I, Cringely

The American Dream changed somehow in the 1970s when real wages for most of us began to stagnate when corrected for inflation and worker age. My best financial year ever was 2000 — 18 years ago — when was yours? This wasn’t a matter of productivity, either: workers were more productive every year, we just stopped being rewarded for it. There are many explanations of how this sad fact came to be and I am sure it’s a problem with several causes. But this column concerns one factor that generally isn’t touched-on by labor economists — Wall Street greed.

Early Man (2018) **

Ill conceived but superbly executed stop-motion animation. A far cry from Aardman's best.

Fifty Shades Freed (2018) **

Again, a well produced, watchable soap opera. You either care about these extremely wealthy, super-controlling individuals or you don't.

The Singular Pursuit of Comrade Bezos – Member Feature Stories – Medium

Just because a plan is efficient doesn’t mean it’s good. Postal Service employees are unionized; they have higher wages, paths for advancement, job stability, negotiated grievance procedures, health benefits, vacation time, etc. Amazon delivery drivers are not and do not. That difference counts as efficiency when we measure by price, and that is, to my mind, a very good argument for not handing the world over to the king of efficiency. The question that remains is whether we have already been too far reduced, whether after being treated as consumers and costs, we might still have it in us to be more, because that’s what it will take to wrench society away from Bezos and from the people who have made him look like a reasonable alternative.

Winter Kills (1979) ***

Political thriller or satire or black comedy or all three, this film is interesting and well acted if not entirely successful. Probably considered outlandish in 1979, unfortunately totally believable today.

Critics At Large : The Film Critic as Moral Haranguer: A.O. Scott on Woody Allen

Hollywood’s behavior around Dylan Farrow’s renewed allegation has been reprehensible – not only because, to quote a play I dislike, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, it assumes that the accuser is always holy now, but mainly because it’s obnoxiously sanctimonious and despicably self-serving. The actors in Allen’s unreleased new movie who have made a big show of donating their salaries to various organizations that support abused women are making sure that, in this cultural climate, they look like they’re on the right side, just as in the 1950s actors who were worried about their careers made sure to distance themselves from anyone who was under investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee. What makes Rebecca Hall so positive that Dylan Farrow is telling the truth and Woody Allen is lying? When Diane Keaton spoke up for Allen, she had to endure Judd Apatow’s insults. Who the hell is Judd Apatow to put down Keaton, a close friend and colleague of Allen’s for half a century, for standing up for him? Apatow’s merely trumpeting his own virtue – and, I’m sorry to say, so is A.O. Scott. An acknowledgement of betrayal and shame? Scott ought to be ashamed of himself.

Hostiles (2017) *

Some lovely scenery interrupted by long takes of one actor talking followed by sequences of extreme violence. Nothing new or special about this poorly directed Hollywood Western.

Consciousness and the World | by Riccardo Manzotti | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books

Tim: You mean, essentially, that we are objects, and objects “take place,” rather than act.

Riccardo: We are part of the physical world, hence objects. What else could we be—immaterial souls?

As for identity, we are what we are because we are identical with a portion of the world that has come together over the years in a certain way. The traditional separation of subject and object that underpins all standard thinking on consciousness and identity lies at the heart of our troubles as individuals and as a society. Convinced that we are separate from the world, we feel we have been expelled from the Garden of Eden, and we yearn to return, maybe after death. But however useful the subject-object divide may be for all kinds of practical matters, it is plain wrong.

Why is pop culture obsessed with battles between good and evil? | Aeon Essays

Good guy/bad guy narratives might not possess any moral sophistication, but they do promote social stability, and they’re useful for getting people to sign up for armies and fight in wars with other nations. Their values feel like morality, and the association with folklore and mythology lends them a patina of legitimacy, but still, they don’t arise from a moral vision. They are rooted instead in a political vision, which is why they don’t help us deliberate, or think more deeply about the meanings of our actions. Like the original Grimm stories, they’re a political tool designed to bind nations together.

It’s no coincidence that good guy/bad guy movies, comic books and games have large, impassioned and volatile fandoms – even the word ‘fandom’ suggests the idea of a nation, or kingdom. What’s more, the moral physics of these stories about superheroes fighting the good fight, or battling to save the world, does not commend genuine empowerment. The one thing the good guys teach us is that people on the other team aren’t like us. In fact, they’re so bad, and the stakes are so high, that we have to forgive every transgression by our own team in order to win.

Acne Vulgaris | Acne | JAMA Dermatology | The JAMA Network

Conclusions: The astonishing difference in acne incidence rates between nonwesternized and fully modernized societies cannot be solely attributed to genetic differences among populations but likely results from differing environmental factors. Identification of these factors may be useful in the treatment of acne in Western populations.

Here's a clue perhaps?

Phantom Thread (2017) **

The actors and production design are admirable but the script and direction is lacking. There doesn't seem to be any coherent point not even logically. And simply an astounding number of extreme closeups of one actor's face at a time.

How to see a memory

This collection of work from multiple groups has built a strong case that the physiological trace of a memory — or at least key components of this trace — can be pinned down to specific neurons, says Silva. Still, neurons in one part of the hippocampus or the amygdala are only a tiny part of a fearful foot-shock engram, which involves sights, smells, sounds and countless other sensations. “It’s probably in 10–30 different brain regions — that’s just a wild guess,” says Silva.

Cars 3 (2017) **

Strictly for the toddler set, but so technically well done it's quite watchable for all ages.

The Future (2011) ***

Another quirky, unusual and interesting film from Miranda July about intelligent but seriously flawed individuals trying to make sense out of life. Not as fully realized as her first film but not a bad second try at all.

She's Funny That Way (2014) **

It's nice to see old Bogdanovich regulars back in action and Ms. Aniston is always a treat but there are too many times when the "comedy" seems forced and the jokes tired.

Nefertiti, Confucius, Genghis Khan, and Charlemagne Are Almost Certainly on Your Family Tree

The answer was merely 600 years ago. Sometime at the end of the 13th century lived a man or woman from whom all Europeans could trace ancestry, if records permitted (which they don’t). If this sounds unlikely or weird, remember that this individual is one of thousands of lines of descent that you and everyone else has at this moment in time, and whoever this unknown individual was, they represent a tiny proportion of your total familial webbed pedigree. But if we could document the total family tree of everyone alive back through 600 years, among the impenetrable mess, everyone European alive would be able to select a line that would cross everyone else’s around the time of Richard II.

Greta Gerwig Comments on Woody Allen Sexual Assault Allegations – Variety

“I can only speak for myself and what I’ve come to is this: If I had known then what I know now, I would not have acted in the film. I have not worked for him again, and I will not work for him again. Dylan Farrow’s two different pieces made me realize that I increased another woman’s pain, and I was heartbroken by that realization. I grew up on his movies, and they have informed me as an artist, and I cannot change that fact now, but I can make different decisions moving forward.”

So sad to hear this from a woman I had thought was an intelligent and thoughtful person. Apparently she is confused as to the meaning of the word "allegation". An allegation that was refuted 25 years ago:

DF: Why is it that Harvey Weinstein and other accused celebrities have been cast out by Hollywood, while Allen [continues working]?

RW: It’s called due process. It was carried out in 1992 when two separate investigations found there was no credibility to Mia’s accusations, so no charges were ever brought against Allen. He lost the custody battle, but as a legal matter, the assault accusation has been a non-issue for 25 years. The fact that there are members of the Farrow family and others who remain angry at Allen is not a basis for studios to stop funding his movies, or for his fans to stop attending them.

Here's the full essay. I hope Ms. Gerwig gets a chance to read it.

2017 In Review: Music

**** Blondie - Pollinator
**** Game Theory - Supercalifragile
**** Lindsey Buckingham & Christine McVie - s/t
**** New Pornographers, The - Whiteout Conditions
**** Shins, The - Heartworms
**** Shout Out Louds, The - Ease My Mind
*** Aimee Mann - Mental Illness
*** Alvvays - Antisocialites
*** Beaches - Second of Spring
*** Bye Bye Blackbirds, The - Take Out The Poison
*** Charlotte Gainsbourg - Rest
*** Chuck Berry - Chuck
*** Girl Ray - Earl Grey
*** Juliana Hatfield - Pussycat
*** Pains of Being Pure At Heart, The - The Echo of Pleasure
*** Paul McCartney & Elvis Costello - Flowers in the Dirt Demos
*** R. Ring - Ignite The Rest
*** Robyn Hitchcock - Robyn Hitchcock
*** Slowdive - Slowdive
*** Stef Chura - Messes
*** Surfer Blood - Snowdonia
*** Waxahatchee - Out In The Storm
** Cheap Trick - We're All Alright!
** Frankie Rose - Cage Tropical
** Haim - Something To Tell You
** Karla Kane - King's Daughters Home For Incurables
** Menace Beach - Lemon Memory
** Mew - Visuals
** Nicole Atkins - Goodnight Rhonda Lee
** Party Battleship - Cake + Flames
** Paul Weller - A Kind Revolution
** Popguns - Sugar Kisses
** Pugwash - Silverlake
** Spoon - Hot Thoughts
** Squeeze - The Knowledge
** TC&I - Great Aspirations
** Twin Peaks (Music from the Limited Event Series)
* Charlotte Hatherley - True Love

2017 In review: Movies

**** A Ghost Story
**** Get Out
**** Ladybird
**** The Disaster Artist
*** Logan Lucky
*** The Little Hours
*** The Big Sick
*** The Beguiled
*** Wonder Wheel
** Wonder Woman
** The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
** Suburbicon
** Okja
** Logan
** Ghost In The Shell
** Fifty Shades Darker
** Dunkirk
** Blade Runner 2049
** Baby Driver
** Atomic Blonde
* The Shape of Water
* Murder On The Orient Express

The Shape of Water (2017) *

Straining at its fantastical and metaphorical ambitions, this film never comes together even on its own terms unless you are a "hopeless romantic" or just into aquatic bestiality. Also it uses the decapitation of a cat as a punch line. Not funny.

Elvis Costello's New Year's Resolution - Rolling Stone

He's also writing new, non-theatrical songs but he hasn't committed to making a new album out of them yet. "Making a record is a much more difficult thing than it used to be, because people have to persuade themselves it's worth slapping down the greenbacks to get the songs onto tape or some recorded medium," he says. "Most people get their music these days in some sort of subscription service, so all the songwriter wants to do is suggest what order to listen to the songs in for the best effect. Beyond that, people usually make their own choices."

Minimal carbs, lots of fat, incredible dieting results – but no science - The Globe and Mail

All human diets before agriculture were effectively carbohydrate-poor, and many, particularly in northern latitudes, were fat-rich. And until the industrial revolution, virtually all human diets were absent the highly refined grains and sugars that the LCHF philosophy specifies as the primary causes of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

As early as 1825, French culinary expert Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, whose The Physiology of Taste is among the most famous books ever written about food, was arguing that carbohydrates cause obesity. In the 1860s, the LCHF diet became widely known as a Banting diet, after British undertaker William Banting, who wrote the first bestselling diet book based on his LCHF conversion experience. Variations on LCHF then spread from England to the European continent, embraced by German medical authorities as the most effective diets for reversing obesity.

By the early 1950s, physicians from some of the best medical schools in the world – Harvard, Stanford and Columbia, for instance – were publishing articles in the academic literature advocating for LCHF diets to treat obesity, advising obese patients to eat "as much as [they] like" of meat, fish, fowl, eggs, animal fats, cheese and green vegetables, while avoiding all carbohydrate-rich foods and beverages, particularly "all sweets." This is what Hilde Bruch, the leading mid-20th-century authority on pediatric obesity, believed. It's what Benjamin Spock taught in six editions and almost 50 million copies of Baby and Child Care, the bible of child-rearing from the 1950s onward. "Rich desserts," Dr. Spock wrote, and "the amount of plain, starchy foods (cereals, breads, potatoes) taken is what determines, in the case of most people, how much [weight] they gain or lose."

Facebook Can Now Find Your Face, Even When It's Not Tagged | WIRED

Facebook’s head of privacy, Rob Sherman, positions the new photo-notification feature as giving people more control over their image online. “We’ve thought about this as a really empowering feature,” he says. “There may be photos that exist that you don’t know about.” Informing you of their existence is also good for Facebook: more notifications flying around means more activity from users and more ad impressions. More people tagging themselves in photos adds more data to Facebook’s cache, helping to power the lucrative ad-targeting business that keeps the company afloat.

Once Facebook identifies you in a photo, it will display a notification that leads to a new Photo Review dialog. There you can choose to tag yourself in the image, message the user who posted an image, inform Facebook that the face isn’t you, or report an image for breaching the site’s rules.

Sounds like a nice feature, but I would like to know more about what Facebook does behind the scenes with those identified images. Sure, you can choose not to be tagged on the poster's photo, but you are always tagged in the database.

Okja (2017) **

Technically impressive anti-meat polemic is way too long and repetitive, but any flick that pairs an action sequence with this song deserves a break.

Wonder Wheel (2017) ***

Woody still shows he can direct a film with some gorgeous images and colors, and actresses with Kate Winslet giving an award worthy performance. Gets to the heart of the matter (like most of his films) and doesn't flinch.

The Disaster Artist (2017) ****

Actor James Franco bails out director James Franco with a mesmerizing performance as the enigmatic lead in this movie about making a bad movie. Great fun.

The Big Sick (2017) ***

The rom-com formula gets an upgrade that skirts the edges of cliché but never succumbs. Sweet and heartfelt with some terrific supporting performances.

The Smithereens - House We Used To Live In - YouTube

Requiescat in pace, lead singer, band leader Pat DiNizio. Great band.

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017) **

Not as sharp or incisive as we've come to expect from Baumbach and it's hard to care about these characters. Kind of a waste of a very good cast.

Silence (2016) **

Well made but far too long. Or not long enough. May have played better as a 6 part limited television series. Still, resonant and thought provoking examination of faith.

Lady Bird (2017) ****

Stellar cast, terrific screenplay, thoughtful, subtle direction. The coming-of-age film to end all coming-of-age films.

Choosy Eggs May Pick Sperm for Their Genes, Defying Mendel’s Law | Quanta Magazine

His hypothesis – that the egg could woo sperm with specific genes and vice versa – is part of a growing realization in biology that the egg is not the submissive, docile cell that scientists long thought it was. Instead, researchers now see the egg as an equal and active player in reproduction, adding layers of evolutionary control and selection to one of the most important processes in life.

“Female reproductive anatomy is more cryptic and difficult to study, but there’s a growing recognition of the female role in fertilization,” said Mollie Manier, an evolutionary biologist at George Washington University.

What if consciousness is not what drives the human mind?

Everyone knows what it feels like to have consciousness: it’s that self-evident sense of personal awareness, which gives us a feeling of ownership and control over the thoughts, emotions and experiences that we have every day.

Most experts think that consciousness can be divided into two parts: the experience of consciousness (or personal awareness), and the contents of consciousness, which include things such as thoughts, beliefs, sensations, perceptions, intentions, memories and emotions.

It’s easy to assume that these contents of consciousness are somehow chosen, caused or controlled by our personal awareness – after all, thoughts don’t exist until until we think them. But in a new research paper in Frontiers of Psychology, we argue that this is a mistake.

We suggest that our personal awareness does not create, cause or choose our beliefs, feelings or perceptions. Instead, the contents of consciousness are generated “behind the scenes” by fast, efficient, non-conscious systems in our brains. All this happens without any interference from our personal awareness, which sits passively in the passenger seat while these processes occur.

Put simply, we don’t consciously choose our thoughts or our feelings – we become aware of them.

Martin Short advises Ramis School students to 'go see the greats' | Chicago Sun-Times

Short revealed that he has had long conversations with Martin Scorsese, who is working on a documentary about “SCTV,” the TV spinoff of Canada’s Second City that became a huge cult hit.

“Marty is fascinated with why some comedy is timeless, when certain other comedy and comedians have a short shelf life,” said Short, citing the late Eddie Cantor (“a huge star in his day, but would make you sick if you watched him today”) as an example of someone who faded.

Former teen idol David Cassidy dies at 67 - SFGate

Mr. Cassidy’s stock soared because of his androgynous good looks, but soon because of his vocals as well. Jones, of course, was a veteran vocalist who had starred in musicals such as “Oklahoma” and “South Pacific,” but Cassidy hadn’t been cast because of his vocal abilities. In fact, the show’s producers assumed he, like most of the young actors playing the Partridge kids, couldn’t sing.

The only ones watchable on the show were Jones, Dey and Cassidy. RIP David.

Murder on the Orient Express (2017) *

Uninspired, uninteresting remake of a much better original with not nearly the star power. For fans of CGI scenery.

How Facebook Figures Out Everyone You've Ever Met

Having issued this warning, and having acknowledged that people in your address book may not necessarily want to be connected to you, Facebook will then do exactly what it warned you not to do. If you agree to share your contacts, every piece of contact data you possess will go to Facebook, and the network will then use it to try to search for connections between everyone you know, no matter how slightly—and you won’t see it happen.

Facebook doesn’t like, and doesn’t use, the term “shadow profiles.” It doesn’t like the term because it sounds like Facebook creates hidden profiles for people who haven’t joined the network, which Facebook says it doesn’t do. The existence of shadow contact information came to light in 2013 after Facebook admitted it had discovered and fixed “a bug.” The bug was that when a user downloaded their Facebook file, it included not just their friends’ visible contact information, but also their friends’ shadow contact information.

How Matter Lost Its Mojo

Modern physics teaches us something rather different, and deeply counter-intuitive. As we worked our way ever inward—matter into atoms, atoms into sub-atomic particles, sub-atomic particles into quantum fields and forces—we lost sight of matter completely. Matter lost its tangibility. It lost its primacy as mass became a secondary quality, the result of interactions between intangible quantum fields. What we recognize as mass is a behavior of these quantum fields; it is not a property that belongs or is necessarily intrinsic to them.

Despite the fact that our physical world is filled with hard and heavy things, it is instead the energy of quantum fields that reigns supreme. Mass becomes simply a physical manifestation of that energy, rather than the other way around.

The Bat (1959) **

Ultra low budget whodunit kept afloat solely by its two bona fide stars.

Get Out (2017) ****

Terrific genre-bending blend of horror/sci-fi tropes with social satire/comedy succeeds on all counts.

Suburbicon (2017) **

There's a kernel of a decent Fargo-esque noir here, but Clooney's idea of shoehorning a racial passion play around the plot baffles more than anything.

Candy (1968) **

Nice job by the lovely Ewa Aulin who essentially carries the film which starts off promisingly but eventually goes off the rails. Good cameo work by a bevy of movie stars helps but satire is one of the toughest of genres to pull off and this flick is no exception. Valiant try though.

The fax of life - Vox

“We don’t expect Amazon and Walmart to share background on their customers, but we do expect competing hospital system to do so,” says David Blumenthal, who coordinated health policy for the Obama administration from 2011 to 2013. “Those institutions consider that data proprietary and an important business asset. We should never have expected it to occur naturally, that these organizations would readily adopt information exchange.”

And this is the problem: health care providers are expected to act not in the patients' interests but in the health care providers' interests. What could go wrong?

Following (1998) **

Nifty neo-noir, sort of a proto-type for Memento.

Facebook translates 'good morning' into 'attack them', leading to arrest | Technology | The Guardian

The Israeli Defence Force has been open about monitoring the social media accounts of Palestinians, looking for “lone-wolf” attackers who might otherwise slip through the net. It reportedly does so automatically, using algorithms to look for terms such as “sword of Allah”.

Todd Rundgren on Meat Loaf's 'Bat Out of Hell': Producer Talks Spoofing Bruce Springsteen With Classic Album | Billboard

But I saw it as a spoof of Bruce Springsteen. Because the songs were sort of very basic changes, the themes were all... [Laughs.] By the time it was the '70s, the themes were kind of nostalgic. Even though Bruce Springsteen would represent them as still being real, the iconography was still out of the '50s, you know? It was switchblades and leather jackets and motorcycles and that sort of junk. So I saw the whole presentation as being a spoof of Bruce Springsteen, and that's why I decided to do it.

Wine Country fires: A deadly inferno’s first hours - San Francisco Chronicle

Firefighters estimate that at times, the flames raced 230 feet per second and, inconceivably, threw embers a full mile ahead of the fire front. It moved so fast that chickens, cats and other animals were charred where they stood, left standing like blackened statues.
The fires awed Bill Stewart, a UC Berkeley forestry professor.
“These fires are off the charts,” he said. “There just aren’t enough firefighters in the West to fight that much fire. ... Those trees, on fire, were pure ember machines that really kicked things into a new level. We’ll be studying this for years to come.”

San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich Calls President Trump ‘Soulless Coward’

Speaking to The Nation’s Dave Zirin, Popovich lambasted Trump for his “never-ending divisiveness” and called him a “pathological liar” who is “unfit intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically” to be president.

“This man in the Oval Office is a soulless coward who thinks that he can only become large by belittling others,” the coach continued.

“This has of course been a common practice of his, but to do it in this manner — and to lie about how previous presidents responded to the deaths of soldiers — is as low as it gets,” he said.

“The people who work with this president should be ashamed because they know it better than anyone just how unfit he is, and yet they choose to do nothing about it. This is their shame most of all.”

Blade Runner 2049 (2017) **

Another sequel-as-remake that looks gorgeous and has the wonderful Ms. Wright, but is much too long and has much too little of anything new to say. Just watch the original (any version) again instead.

Mudcrutch - I Forgive It All (Official Music Video) - YouTube

Next to this, the best video ever. Certainly the best thing Sean Penn ever directed.

Whatever Works (2009) ***

Sure it has the regular Woody tropes but it also has a lot of good one-liners, a New York Chinatown setting which we don't see a lot of in the movies, plus the great Larry David. Very enjoyable.

Never Let Me Go (2010) **

The performers are fine but the direction fails to bring out the metaphorical aspects of the story relying on a final voice over to spell it out for us.