2018 In Review: Music

**** Essex Green, The - Hardly Electronic
*** Albert Hammond Jr. - Francis Trouble
*** Amy Rigby - The Old Guys
*** Beths, The - Future Me Hates Me
*** Bird Streets - Bird Streets
*** Brian Jonestown Massacre, The - Something Else
*** Charlatans, The - Totally Eclipsing
*** Chills, The - Snow Bound
*** Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Really Feel
*** Elvis Costello - Look Now
*** Gretchen's Wheel - Black Box Theory
*** KT Tunstall - Wax
*** Laura Veirs - The Lookout
*** Lemon Twigs, The - Go To School
*** Liminanas, The - Shadow People
*** Metric - Art Of Doubt
*** Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson - Apart
*** Richard Thompson - 13 Rivers
*** Tres Oui - Poised To Flourish
*** We Are Scientists - Megaplex
*** Wild Nothing - Indigo
*** Decemberists, The - Traveling On EP
*** Django Django - Winter's Beach EP
** Alex Chilton and Peter Holsapple -The Death Of Rock
** Antarctigo Vespucci - Love In The Time Of Email
** Beach House - 7
** Belle & Sebastian - How To Solve Our Human Problems
** Breeders, The - All Nerve
** Charlotte Gainsbourg - Take 2
** Frontperson - Frontrunner
** Great Lakes - Dreaming Too Close To The Edge
** Hinds - I Don't Run
** Inara George - Dearest Everybody
** Johnny Marr - Call The Comet
** Kate Nash - Yesterday Was Forever
** Kooks, The - Let's Go Sunshine
** Pavlov's Dog - Prodigal Dreamer
** Pinkshinyultrablast - Miserable Miracles
** Sam Phillips - World on Sticks
** Shins, The - The Worms Heart
** Superchunk - What a Time to Be Alive
** Eleanor Friedberger - Rebound
** Jeff Tweedy - Warm
** Neko Case - Hell-On
** Rays - You Can Get There From Here

2018 In Review: Movies

**** The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs
**** Roma
*** A Quiet Place
*** Annihilation
*** The Favourite
*** First Reformed
*** Isle Of Dogs
*** Mamma Mia! Her We Go Again
*** The Other Side Of The Wind
*** Unsane
*** Widows
** Crazy Rich Asians
** I Feel Pretty
** Incredibles 2
** Mowgli: Legend Of The Jungle
** The Spy Who Dumped Me
** You Were Never Really Here
* Bohemian Rhapsody
* Ready Player One
* The Nutcracker And The Four Realms
* The Old Man And The Gun

The Favourite (2018) ***

Not as twisted (or direct) as his previous films, but entertaining and well made.

Roma (2018) ****

Directorial tour-de-force about an upper class family coming apart in early '70's Mexico City. Lots of long one take sequences which boggle the mind as to how they were accomplished.

The Other Side of the Wind (2018) ***

Can be interpreted in many ways, but this final Orson Welles picture is as ambitious as any previous. Lots to admire, lots to think about.

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018) **

Well made but succumbs to the tired Hollywood script "beats" and ends up quite like another film.

First Reformed (2017) ***

Nicely directed character study that takes a turn. Beautiful, minimalist production design and a very good performance by Mr. Hawke.

Performance (1970) **

I paid attention but couldn't figure out the point. Enjoyed the actors and the cinematography though.

Brief Encounter (TV Movie 1974) **

Superbly shot drama with Ms. Loren never lovelier.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) ****

Superbly crafted anthology film featuring the trademark Coens' humor, irony and detail. Well played by a great cast.

You Were Never Really Here (2017) **

Gritty and violent neo-noir has some interesting moments and admirable narrative restraint. Joaquin Phoenix holds it together.

Watching the Detectives (2007) **

A case of low expectations being rewarded, the flick is enjoyable thanks to the able cast and quick pace. Formulaic rom-com.

Stephen Hillenburg Dead: SpongeBob Squarepants’ Creator Was 57 – Variety

Hillenburg graduated from Humboldt State University in 1984 with a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resource Planning and Interpretation, with an emphasis on marine resources. He then became a marine biology teacher at the Orange County Marine Institute (now the Ocean Institute) in Dana Point, California. This interest, combined with his artistic talent and love of the sea and its creatures, led him to write and illustrate stories as teaching tools with characters that would later become the denizens of SpongeBob’s home, Bikini Bottom.

One of the best television shows ever made. Expertly crafted, tightly written, absurdly imaginative, humane and hilarious.

Widows (2018) ***

Nifty noir-heist-thriller is well paced and chock full of stars. Once the setup is complete, the second half takes off.

Nicolas Roeg, director of Don't Look Now and Walkabout, dies aged 90 | Film | The Guardian

Having risen through the ranks and devised his own, unique film language, Roeg held firm convictions in cinema as a distinct art form. “Movies are not scripts – movies are films,” he said in a 2006 interview. “They’re not books, they’re not the theatre. It’s a completely different discipline, it exists on its own. I would say that the beauty of it is, it’s not the theatre, it’s not done over again. It’s done in bits and pieces. Things are happening which you can’t get again.”

Purple Noon (1960) ***

Well directed Highsmith thriller with a knockout ending. Beautiful people in beautiful places doing not very nice things.

Jeremiah Johnson (1972) ***

Exceptional flick marred by an obnoxiously intrusive score. Pollack's most beautifully shot and composed film.

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018) *

Bad CGI fest masquerading as fantasy. Unfortunate because the art direction is pretty good.

Camille Paglia:It’s Time for a New Map of the Gender World - Quillette

My substitute for religion is art, which I have expanded to include all of popular culture. But when art is reduced to politics, as has been programmatically done in academe for 40 years, its spiritual dimension is gone. It is coarsely reductive to claim that value in the history of art is always determined by the power plays of a self-referential social elite. I take Marxist social analysis seriously: Arnold Hauser’s Marxist, multi-volume A Social History of Art (1951) was a major influence on me in graduate school. However, Hauser honored art and never condescended to it. A society that respects neither religion nor art cannot be called a civilization.

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) *

Laughably cliched and simple minded biopic of Queen, focusing on the trials and tribulations of Mr. Mercury who was quite the annoying diva.

Personal Best (1982) **

So-so sports flick, notable for using some actual athletes in major roles (very well) and manages to avoid a few relationship cliches but not all unfortunately. Nice shots of SLO in the 70's, and it's interesting to see what premier athletes looked like back then (NOT bulked up).

Hall Of Fame Slugger Willie McCovey Dies At Age 80 : NPR

McCovey was nicknamed "Stretch" because his height at 6-foot-4. Left-handed throwing made him a natural at first base. He was best known for his 521 career home runs, 18 of which were grand slams — the most by any player who spent his career exclusively in the National League. McCovey was the National League's home run leader three times and RBI king twice in his 22-season career. He played 13 of those years on the Giants with teammate Willie Mays and together they formed one of the most powerful hitting duos in baseball history.

He hit one of the longest home runs I've ever seen into the high upper deck of right field in Busch Stadium II. Always thrilling to watch him at bat.

Under the Volcano (1984) **

Huston can be TOO literal in his adaptations and this time it doesn't come together. Great cast, beautiful pictures, evocative production.

Third Finger, Left Hand (1940) **

Droll rom-com more interesting for the glimpse into the mores of pre-war, almost post Depression New Yorkers.

The Old Man & the Gun (2018) *

Even for a Redford fan, the sheer volume and intensities of the close ups is overwhelming. Yet, except for him there isn't much to write home about here. Very disappointing.

Demon Seed (1977) **

Features a superlative performance by the luminous Ms. Christie, but the rest of the picture is kind of silly.

The Immortal Story (TV Movie 1968) **

Beautifully shot, a bit too languorously paced, an intellectual exercise that never fully becomes real, which is kind of the point of the narrative.

Othello (1951) ***

Able to surmount the apparent production difficulties, the performances and production design carry the day. Imaginatively directed by Welles.

Men Are Not Gods (1936) **

Interesting look at the incredibly misogynistic mores of pre-war Britain. The title should have an addendum "...But They Sure Think They Are."

Napoleon Dynamite (2004) ***

Some hilarious, spot on scenes and a terrific overall capturing of the high school experience. Amazing performance by Jon Heder in the lead. Some of the eccentricities feel a bit forced.

Another Woman (1988) ****

Sharply written, well acted, always visually interesting with a lot of attention to detail. One of Woody's best.

Geoff Emerick, Beatles Chief Recording Engineer, Dies at 72 – Variety

Emerick was a Grammy Award winner for his work on “Sgt. Pepper’s” and “Abbey Road” as well as Paul McCartney and Wings’ “Band on the Run.” He is credited on albums by Elvis Costello (“Imperial Bedroom”), Badfinger, Supertramp, Cheap Trick and America, among many others.

Tremendous talent, tremendous impact on people's lives.

The Quiet Earth (1985) ***

Some similarities to other last-man-on-earth flicks but eschews the zombies/vampires/mutants route and sticks to the harder science angle.

Forget Nature Versus Nurture. Nature Has Won - Quillette

In Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are Robert Plomin makes the case that genetic differences cause most variation in psychological traits – things like personality and cognitive abilities. The way your parents raise you, the schools you attend – they don’t have much effect on those traits. Children are similar to their parents, but that similarity is due to shared genetics, rather than shared family environment.

Obviously the thoughts in your head, the facts you know, are not the same as your great-great-grand-father’s – we learn those things. But how easily you learn those facts, how well you remember them, how optimistic or pessimistic you are – those are largely set by your genes. Almost every psychological trait has significant heritability, even political leanings. To a significant degree, you’re either born a little Liberal or else a little Conservative, to quote Gilbert and Sullivan.

And to the extent that your personality is not set by your genes, it’s apparently influenced by poorly-understood random factors, rather than your upbringing or social circumstances.

Believe (Some) Women - Quillette

As the revelations concerning Asia Argento – one of Ronan Farrow’s key sources in his Weinstein story who was recently accused of sexually assaulting a teenage boy have also demonstrated, the reality is that the world is a complicated place. Perhaps Argento is both a victim and an abuser. Perhaps Farrow was a good mother to two of her children and a bad one to others. Although many will find Allen and Previn’s relationship wildly inappropriate and distasteful, the affair has plainly resulted in a stable and abiding marriage. Ultimately, dividing the world into victims and villains, as #MeToo demands of us, fails to take into account the complexities of human nature. And the trouble is that it’s a much more difficult concept to believe.

Unsane (2018) ***

Extremely well crafted thriller from Mr. Soderbergh rises above its stalker genre trappings.

Oculus (2013) **

Well produced horror flick with a nifty script that doesn't cop out.

Night Nurse (1931) **

Interesting look at Depression era medical mores and practices.

Sweet Bird of Youth (1962) **

Southern fried melodrama, typical Williams fare, with a great cast and some great lines.

Resistance Means More Than Voting | by Garry Wills | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books

Obama said that people who “secretly aren’t following the president’s orders” are not defending democracy: “These people are not elected. They’re not accountable.”

Interesting, and telling, that Obama seems to consider elections the sole means of accountability. So elected officials are the only persons who may affect change. And if they torture, commit war crimes, perpetrate massive financial fraud and theft, run illegal assassination programs, the only way to hold them accountable is vote them out. And once voted out, they are punished as much as can be. We know that's what Obama believes because that is exactly what happened during his terms.

Loving Vincent (2017) **

The sequences of the paintings coming to life is great. The rest not so much.

Ismael's Ghosts (2017) *

A colossal waste of two fine actresses in a film with about 45 minutes worth of a good story mangled up with another 80 minutes of confusion.

Cinema Verite (TV Movie 2011) **

There's reality and there's "reality" and sometimes they cross paths. Well done docudrama about the original "reality" show. Ms. Lane shines (as usual).

Dagon (2001) **

Fun, well made (on a shoestring budget) Lovecraft horror flick.

Barbara Harris - Biography - IMDb

[on appearing in Family Plot (1976)] Alfred Hitchcock was a wonderful man. He always wanted emotionless people in his movies. There was a scene in our film, where Karen Black was acting, acting, acting -- all that Lee Strasberg human-struggle stuff. And it took her so long to get those tears going, and Mr. Hitchcock turned to the cameraman and said, "We will just photograph the actors' feet in this scene." He wanted a beautiful woman who wasn't showing her life's history in a scene.

Paris Can Wait (2016) ***

Lovely trip through the French countryside with the luminous Diane Lane. No romcom cliches but lots of great food, wine, sights.

The Spy in Black (1939) **

Unusual spy thriller has you rooting for the bad guy almost to the end. (Lots of similarities to Eye of the Needle.) Early Powell shows his gifts with visuals.

Crazy Rich Asians (2018) **

Fairy tale romcom dialed up to 11. Nonstop cotton candy for the emotions. Lots of pretty people in pretty places.

Ready Player One (2018) *

Supremely crafted YA dreck made more so by Mr. Spielberg's annoying habit of spelling out every last detail and nuance to the audience. Scenes of live action and CGI are seamless, and the sequence replicating The Shining is fun.

Researchers find a way to mimic clinical trials using genetics - MIT Technology Review

They noted that epidemiology has an admirable track record in identifying the causes of infectious diseases from AIDS to Zika, in part because hypotheses can be tested in laboratories and in the field, and because governments have been easily convinced to do such tests. But chronic conditions like heart disease and cancer present an entirely different challenge. Epidemiology can provide correlations between diet, lifestyle, and disease, but that’s all it does. It generates hypotheses about possible causes, and little more than that. What concerned Davey Smith and Ebrahim was that epidemiologists had taken to jumping the scientific gun: they were advising people how to live and eat on the basis of mere hypotheses, without doing the rigorous (and very expensive) trials that might determine whether they were right.

Annihilation (2018) ***

Thinking person's sci-fi with a few more layers than most.

Ghost World (2001) ***

Well made depiction of the post high school teen, 1990's version. Funny and thoughtful.

Hollywood Ending (2002) **

Hollywood satire misses the mark which is like missing the side of a barn. Disappointing.

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) **

Noirs tend to be convoluted but this takes the cake. It's well made but probably too faithful to the source material as the plot is not credible and the film is too long.

Personal Shopper (2016) **

A mishmash of genres that never makes sense and only serves as a Kristen Stewart showcase. Which is not such a bad thing.

Passport to Pimlico (1949) *

It was probably hilarious at the time and the place, but 70 years later it is an artifact of post-war Britain at best.

Please Give (2010) ***

A terrific Catherine Keener anchors this solid character driven film.

The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018) **

Amusing attempt at an action comedy, never really succeeds at either. Saved from disaster by Ms. McKinnon.

Dreamchild (1985) *

It's only 94 minutes but seems much longer. Not worth the time.

Columbus (2017) **

Subtle (a little too subtle) look at two lives going in different directions intersecting in a mid-western town known for its architectural sights. Some nice visuals.

Oliver Twist (1948) ***

Mr. Lean displays his masterful visual acumen, casting eye and pacing, and when he lays off the heavy-handed music the results are riveting.

Her (2013) ***

Well-made, thoughtful near future story about the human desperation for companionship. Well, some humans anyway.

Touch of Evil (1958) ***

A flawed masterpiece of interesting, oddball choices and some terrific bit parts. Mr. Heston playing a Mexican sticks out like a sore thumb but without him the picture doesn't get made. Orson tries his best and throws everything he has into it and nearly succeeds.

The Wind in the Willows Isn't Really a Children's Book | Literary Hub

But for the most part, the book is about a group of well-off, leisured English gentlemen. Even more importantly, the book hardly ever addresses itself to an audience of children: as Humphrey Carpenter put it, “The Wind in the Willows has nothing to do with childhood or children, except that it can be enjoyed by the young.”

Yuval Noah Harari: ‘The idea of free information is extremely dangerous’ | Culture | The Guardian

You say if you want good information, pay good money for it. The Silicon Valley adage is information wants to be free, and to some extent the online newspaper industry has followed that. Is that wise?

The idea of free information is extremely dangerous when it comes to the news industry. If there’s so much free information out there, how do you get people’s attention? This becomes the real commodity. At present there is an incentive in order to get your attention – and then sell it to advertisers and politicians and so forth – to create more and more sensational stories, irrespective of truth or relevance. Some of the fake news comes from manipulation by Russian hackers but much of it is simply because of the wrong incentive structure. There is no penalty for creating a sensational story that is not true. We’re willing to pay for high quality food and clothes and cars, so why not high quality information?

Actually, there ARE penalties for publishing fake news, or there used to be. Fraud used to be a punishable crime but prosecutors have stopped even attempting to uphold such laws. Even so, there is no guarantee that paying for something equates to high quality. That is an incredibly naive misunderstanding of human nature. Since human beings created newspapers they have published sensational, untrue stories. Harari (a historian???) needs to google "yellow journalism" for a start.

Kathleen Turner, In Conversation

What do you think about the approach of actors like Dustin Hoffman or Daniel Day-Lewis, who famously do all this intense in-character preparation in order to play a role?
In Crimes of Passion I was playing a designer by day, $50 whore on Hollywood Boulevard by night. Do you think I was going to hang out with whores on Hollywood Boulevard and find out what the fuck that was like? I have an imagination, you know. My belief is that all the information I need is in the script. And if it’s not, then it’s not a good enough script.

Robert Redford Retiring From Acting Officially, Actor Confirms – /Film

Robert Redford is going out with a bang. Because what better way to cap off a 58-year career that contains some of the all-time classic roles and movies in cinema history? But it’s a bang that he’s been planning for quite a while now, since he first announced his intention to retire back in 2016. Now Redford can officially announce that he’s retiring from acting following his final role in the aptly titled drama, The Old Man & The Gun.

Quite the body of work for this almost always interesting actor/movie star.

The Breaking Point (1950) ***

Tough, gritty noir may not have star power but it has fine actors and no nonsense direction.

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) ***

Enjoyably ludicrous flick filled with great songs and beautiful people in a beautiful part of the world obviously having a great time.

Farewell, My Lovely (1975) **

Fairly faithful to the Chandler novel with some aspects that were not essential being kept (the overt racism of the times) and others that were pretty important to Chandler (corruption of the medical profession) being changed. I like Mitchum as Marlowe but in his prime. Here he's close to 60 and looks older.

A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III (2012) **

Design and cinematography carry the picture whose main character is not likable in the least and that's crucial to the story. Mr. Coppola has a cinematic eye and can write dialogue, and the flick has a breezy stylized feel to it.

To Remember, the Brain Must Actively Forget | Quanta Magazine

As Davis and Zhong argued in their jointly written 2017 review, all those findings suggested that cellular processes mediated by dopamine and Rac1 constantly erode newly formed memories. “From this perspective,” they wrote, “forgetting as mediated by intrinsic forgetting mechanisms may be the default state of the brain; intrinsic forgetting may operate chronically at a low level to slowly remove each newly acquired memory, although its strength may be regulated by internal or external factors.”

A Quiet Place (2018) ***

Nifty thriller that relies on cinematic techniques instead of overt exposition to clue you in. Plot contrivances are kept to a minimum and you barely notice the holes. Well done.

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) ***

Well made, faithful adaptation of the novel. Cruise is ok but not the Lestat I had in mind while reading it. Lushly photographed.

The Comedians (1967) **

Typical Greene story, way too long and with too many critical but uninspired performances.

Don’t Throw Away Your Cell Phone

Are companies engineering their products to break?

I spent four and a half years in mainland China and witnessed scientists paid by major corporations to make sure that the thing that you buy breaks within days or weeks of the warranty’s end. I watched as they intentionally inserted lower-quality capacitors rather than standard ones on the motherboard, because this one is going to last this exact amount of time and not a month more. My grandmother has her toaster that she got as a wedding gift. She’s 87 years old and still uses that toaster. Why at age 33, have I gone through seven toasters?

IASC: The Hedgehog Review - Volume 20, No. 2 (Summer 2018) - What Is It Like to Be a Man? -

And no wonder many of us have failed to see grabby men as a serious social problem for women, when an American boyhood consists of little else but unorganized combat drills, unwanted invasions of personal territory. It’s all grabs, punches, towel flicks, fake homoerotic aggression, threats of unspecified but grim—and, as one ages—increasingly sexualized violence. One night in my teenage years, as I was clocking out of my shift at McDonald’s, a guy flicked my balls, decisively and painfully. We weren’t on bad terms. It was a greeting.

Incredibles 2 (2018) **

Still tops with the animation, but it's now just another superhero flick, overlong and surprisingly talky.

Queen Christina (1933) **

Garbo looks and is great, but the flick is not well written nor cast. Some nice scenes.

The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971) *

Nicely shot "folk horror" flick about satanic cult in Merrie Olde Englande but it's not very horrific and kind of dull, except for the lovely Ms. Hayden.

The Nightcomers (1971) *

Hard to imagine what the film makers were going for here but what they end up with is just bad. Poorly cast, directed, written.

The Formula (1980) **

European locales and George C. are the only interesting aspects of this sorry flick featuring one of the worst and goofiest Brando bit parts.

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