Homicide (1991) ***

Terrific cop procedural that really isn't. The kind of film that cannot get financed any more.

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) **

Extremely talky Williams potboiler relys on psycho-babble, an emaciated, rickety Monty Clift, another regal turn by Kate and the lovely Liz. The actors make it watchable.

Spencer (2021) **

Stewart carries the picture as it attempts to use real historical people as characters in an imagined scenario. Multiple viewings might make this attempt more successful since we're still a little too close in time for our knowledge of those people to be re-imagined.

All About Eve (1950) ***

Opulently written, stylishly cynical look at the world of "The Theater" and its inhabitants. Lots of elegant speeches and performances.

Early ‘lab-grown’ Covid virus found in sample lends weight to Wuhan theory (telegraph.co.uk)

An early version of Covid-19 that appears to have been grown in a laboratory has been discovered in samples from a Chinese biotechnology firm. The finding lends weight to claims that the virus may have started life as a lab experiment that accidentally leaked out. Bioinformatics experts from the University of Veterinary Medicine and Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary, made the discovery by accident while examining genetic data from soil samples collected from Antarctica in late 2018 and early 2019.

The samples were sent to Sangon Biotech in Shanghai for sequencing in Dec 2019, where they became contaminated with a previously unknown variant of Covid-19. The variant has mutations that bridge the gap between bat coronavirus and the earliest Wuhan strain, so it may be an ancestral version of the virus. The samples also contain DNA from hamsters and monkeys, suggesting that the early virus may have been grown in animal cell lines. Viscount Ridley, author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19, said: “The unique mutations hint at it being an ancestral variant. So if it was sequenced in say mid-December, before anybody had identified the virus in people and started trying to grow it in labs, then it points to secret samples in labs in 2019.”

Written on the Wind (1956) **

Sumptuously produced and magnificently photographed, yet basically a bonkers melodrama that has no relation to how human beings actually live their lives. (Not that that's always necessary in a film.) Malone and Stack are a hoot.

Deconstructing Harry (1997) ***

Funny if jarringly crude at times, and once the experimental editing style calms down this is almost up to Stardust Memories level in quality.

Elvis Costello is a more perceptive, skilled and thoughtful writer than ever

And I did write another record that was just a literal representation of a transition in my life that took place about 17 years ago. People were deeply shocked by how plain-spoken it was and didn’t like it. A lot of people didn’t like it because it wasn’t tricky and ironic and all these things that I had become supposedly known for. The couple of times that I spoke directly to people, they kind of stepped back, not cause the songs were bad, but because they don’t like truth. I’m that guy that’s got the smart-arse line you know but that’s not really me, that’s them, that’s what they’re hearing. You know I have no control about the way people listen to my songs, I have to write what I honestly think is the right story.

17 years ago was 2004/2005. EC released "The Delivery Man" in 2004, but that was well received. "North" was released in 2003 and wasn't as successful but it was a piano ballad album and I doubt folks were turned off by the lyrical content. I wonder if he's referring to 2002's "When I Was Cruel"?

Washing the Dishes and Clothes by Thich Nhat Hanh | Spirituality & Practice

Wash the dishes relaxingly, as though each bowl is an object of contemplation. Consider each bowl as sacred. Follow your breath to prevent your mind from straying. Do not try to hurry to get the job over with. Consider washing the dishes the most important thing in life. Washing the dishes is meditation. If you cannot wash the dishes in mindfulness, neither can you meditate while sitting in silence.

Thank you Thây for all you have given me.

The Quiet American (1958) **

Not sure why this film was made since it completely upends the source novel, but Mike Redgrave is good and the script is sharp.

Peter Bogdanovich Dead: Last Picture Show, Paper Moon Director Dies

Recalling a conversation he had with Welles shortly before the Citizen Kane director died in 1985, Bogdanovich seemed to be looking back on his own life: “I said, ‘Jesus, Orson, I feel like I made so many mistakes.’ And he said, ‘Well, it does seem difficult to go through life without making a great many of them,’ which was our way of rekindling our friendship. That was the last time we spoke.”

It's a Wonderful Life (1946) ****

The Capra "corn" is still there but if you just go with it, Jimmy's performance is all you need. Long, but well paced.

Beauty and the Beast (1946) ****

Jean Cocteau uses nothing but actors, cinema technique and his imagination to create a fantasy world miles ahead of the latest CGI junk from Marvel et al.

2021 In Review: Movies

*** The Many Saints Of Newark
** The French Dispatch
** Luca
* Annette
* Fever Dream
* Godzilla vs. Kong
* No Time To Die

2021 In Review: Music

**** David Bowie - Toy
**** Lindsey Buckingham - Lindsey Buckingham
**** MARINA - Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land
**** New Myths - All The Shiny Things (EP)
*** ABBA - Voyage
*** Bad Bad Hats - Walkman
*** Blood Lemon - Blood Lemon
*** Chills, The - Scatterbrain
*** Connells, The - Steadman's Wake
*** Field Music - Flat White Moon (EP)
*** Gloria - Sabbat Matters
*** Grouplove - This Is This
*** Middle Kids - Today We're The Greatest
*** Orange Peels, The - Celebrate The Moments Of Your Life
*** Paul Weller - Fat Pop (Volume 1)
*** Pearl Charles - Magic Mirror
*** Sports - Get a Good Look Pt. 1 (EP)
*** Spotlight Kid - Darkwaters
*** Texas - Hi
*** Weather Station, The - Ignorance
*** Weezer - Van Weezer
*** Winds - Look At The Sky
** Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - New Fragility
** Colleen Green - Cool
** Courtney Barnett - Things Take Time, Take Time
** Field Music - Another Shot (EP)
** Flyying Colours - Fantasy Country
** Goat Girl - On All Fours
** Jane Weaver - Flock
** Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee
** Jaromil Sabor - Mount Vision
** Jorge Elbrecht - Presentable Corpse
** Joy Formidable, The - Into the Blue
** Juliana Hatfield - Blood
** Lily Konigsberg - Lily We Need to Talk Now
** Liz Phair - Soberish
** Matt Berry - The Blue Elephant
** Matthew Sweet - Catspaw
** Midnight Sister - Painting The Roses
** Pardoner - Came Down Different
** Pip Blom - Welcome Break
** Piroshka - Love Drips And Gathers
** Ringo Starr - Zoom In (EP)
** Torres - Thirstier
** Umbrellas, The - The Umbrellas
* Aimee Mann - Queens Of The Summer Hotel

Newly identified hormone may be a critical driver of type 1 and type 2 diabetes | News | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Many hormones are involved in the regulation of metabolism, such as insulin and leptin. Fabkin is different from traditional hormones in that it is not a single molecule with a single defined receptor. Instead, fabkin is composed of a functional protein complex consisting of multiple proteins, including fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4), adenosine kinase (ADK) and nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDPK). Through a series of experiments, the researchers determined that fabkin regulates energy signals outside of cells. These signals then act through a family of receptors to control target cell function. In the case of diabetes, fabkin controls the function of beta cells in the pancreas that are responsible for insulin production.

The Thief of Bagdad (1940) ***

Conny Veidt gives a master class in how to play a villain in this colorful fantasy.

Repo Man (1984) **

Quirky and influential comedy/sci-fi hybrid. Well cast, played and directed.

The French Connection (1971) **

Expertly made police procedural, but can't believe it beat out Stanley for best picture/director.

Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967) ***

Unmistakably Scorsese right from the beginning even on a shoestring.