which hot sauce?

CopLand (1997) - An iconic cast doing what they do best. Stallone as Sheriff Freddy was fantastic.

The Drop (2014) - The late, great James Gandolfini supporting Tom Hardy in a well thought out gangster drama.

Oblivion (2013) - Tom Cruise plays a drone technician in a post-alien-invasion Earth. Olga Kurylenko is the most beautiful woman. Entertaining.

The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947) - A feel-good ghost story about dying alone (somehow).

Prisoners (2013) - Hugh Jackman and Terrance Howard have a real rough week, with Jake Gyllenhaal giving a masterclass as the blinking detective.

Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021) - Nicholas Cage gets his balls blown off because he thought about having sex with a woman whose chin could beat Jay Leno’s in thumb wrestling. Movie was and hour and a half too long (runtime 1.43)

Sometimes the Simpsons parodied things so well, that it’s only later on in life that I realize iconic and hilarious Simpson moments were actually parodies.

The Cape Fear episode. The Citizen Kane episode. The Thelma and Louise episode. The Planet of the Apes musical.

fuckin’ classics

Maybe in this trolley problem, someone pulls the lever. Stanislav Petrov did the right thing, perhaps others will too.

Everyone experiencing pain, has to find their own reason to push through it, or they will succumb to it. Whether it’s emotional or physical, most of the time the best way out is through. If you’re in dense brush, with thorns all around, you can stop, and hope that by remaining perfectly still you’ll avoid being poked, or you can clench your teeth, move as much as you can out of the way and push past the rest. Sometimes it’s remaining still that becomes more unbearable.

Whenever I fall out of running, and try to pick it back up, my inner mantra remains the same. It doesn’t matter how many times you stop, as long as you start back up again.

Beauty and the Beast

But also I recently saw the comedy Bottoms, and thought Charlie XCX did a great job with that soundtrack

It’s amazing. I recommend sitting outside the central train station in Amsterdam and people watching, as thousands of tourists attempt to bicycle or walk somewhere, and they’re just in everybody’s way. It’s hilarious. If you’re going to cycle (which, yes, you should) stay to the right and signal where you want to go. There are bike lanes there for you to take, don’t just be off in the middle of the street. Also, they want you to pay for an extra ticket to bring your bike on the train with you, I found that this can be ignored if you’re not a jerk about it.

The fuckin moon, and it’s not even close. Get me off this rock

Something along the lines of me no longer being able to afford to live alone while saving money, use of the military against U.S. citizens, or if they try to sell our national parks. Those are a few that would demand real retaliation, not just in the form of protest. Another would be the orange rapist going for a third term.

Right now I’m just comfortable enough, and with hopeful plans for the future, that I wouldn’t want to do anything revolutionary… but if shit starts to turn, I have no qualms with tossing my comfort and future plans aside and going rogue. I’ll live in a ditch and eat out of the trash before I let these fascist thugs steal my country.

Sigor Ros. Saw them live and, despite their melancholy music, put on a helluva show. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed them live!

That and The Flaming Lips. Their live shows are always spectacular, seen them twice

My parents have conservative talk radio and/or fox news on basically 24/7 in their house and car, so there was really nowhere I could escape their politics. I figured out that all their talk was BS, but could never convince my parents of anything. I could take a quote from their favorite host, and pair it alongside facts stating the opposite was true from an organization that they, themselves, were members of, and they still would dismiss me.

In reality, it’s not the politics that got between us, it’s that they’re shitty people.

My therapist made a really great point when I brought up this exact issue with him. He asked if I value a relationship with my parents, and I said yes. Then he said that the price you have to pay for having a relationship with them, is never discussing politics.

It worked for a year or so, but then they voted for that rapist again, and I’ve since cut them out of my life. I’m not walking around on the eggshells of their bigotry and ignorance just so I can get some semblance of what some may describe as affection. You can only say/do so many shitty terrible things before I’m just done with you completely, and they hit their limit, so it was time to cash out.

Sorry, my advice of ignoring politics only works for a little while.

Cloud Atlas is one of my favorite movies! When I first realized I was watching

… I was astonished. And I’m still floored by the expansive idea of it to this day.

Living in the US is like living within the prisoners dilemma. If we all work together, we could make the world an infinitely better place, but we’re all worried that a bunch of us won’t, and they’ll instead drive all of us off a cliff if they have even the idea that it might make them richer than their neighbor. Our worries are founded in the political landscape of today, where everywhere you look the world is getting worse, and there’s some rich republican smarmy asshole doing everything in their power to make it worse (while profiting from the chaos).

Artistically, I’d say:

• Cloud Atlas
• The Fall
• Pans Labyrinth

For Epics, I’d say:

• Lord of the Rings Trilogy
• Kingdom of Heaven
• Seven Samurai

For Comedies:

• Airplane!
• Home Alone
• Naked Gun
• Hot Fuzz

Super Hero Movies:

• Logan
• Batman: The Dark Knight
• Batman vs. Superman (The Snyder Cut)

Animated:

• Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse
• Spirited Away
• Beauty and the Beast
• Akira

Horror:

• Alien(s)
• The Shining
• The Thing
• Psycho

Honorable Mention:

• Oh Brother Where art thou
• Fargo (the TV series is great too!)
• Django Unchained
• Pulp Fiction
• Dunkirk
• Inglorious Basterds
• Dial M for Murder
• North by Northwest
• Wild Strawberries

(I’m sorry, I love movies)

You can rewatch Requiem for a Dream!?

To pay tribute to the late director, David Lynch, I finally got around to watching Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, and The Straight Story.

The Straight Story was an homage to the American Midwest, and despite being as slow as the protagonists method of transportation, kept my interest throughout.

Mulholland Drive had some brilliant acting, some amazing scenes, and really left a lasting impact on me. Most notably, I was left saying “WTF?”

While Blue Velvet is like a crime drama with Camp turned up to 11. Had some great scenes, and was interesting, but some of the acting choices and dialogue were bewildering to me. (“It’s time to FUCK! Let’s FUCK!” comes to mind lol)

Just watched the directors cut of Kingdom of Heaven, and dang, what a film!

Mine isn’t particularly exotic, merely a feral cat. She seemed friendly, so I started leaving some water out, and giving her some food, with the intention of adopting her. Then, she had a litter of kittens under my porch. 5 of them. So I started leaving a bit more food out. In a couple days, 2 more kittens joined them (with no sign of the parents). I thought they were cute, but despite wanting to adopt the original mamma cat, I was not prepared to take in 8 freaking cats.

Then I learned that they had found a small hole in the outer wall of my house, which lead to the underside of the home. A small opening only the kittens could squeeze in and out of. I thought it was cute and allowed it because, how much harm could they do? and it seemed like a nice little protective place for them to hide from the neighborhood dogs that I’ve seen wandering around my yard.

Well then I discovered that another opening to the underside of my house, this time large enough for an adult cat to get through. Still, I was unbothered. It was during the winter, and having the mamma cat there seemed downright reasonable. I continued to feed them everyday, and provide a gravity fed watering dish.

But as spring came, so did the smell. At first I thought the smell was emanating purely from them pooping near my house, so I found out where they had been doing it, and blocked the sandy ground so that it was inaccessible. Next I decided to block the large opening to the underside of my house, and in so doing, discovered the true source of the smell. Not only had they been seeking refuge under my home, but they had torn down a sizable portion of the insulation, and shat absolutely.EVERYWHERE. (in the process of poking around the giant litterbox that is the underside of my house, I got a nice sinus infection as their parting gift)

I decided to open it up, and put a box fan down there, hoping that airflow would diminish the smell, but oh, dear reader, it just made it worse. The lack of insulation combined with the airflow meant I was pushing a massive amount of the smell directly into my living quarters. I opened every window in the house trying to rid myself of the smell, which barely receded.

I’ve since ordered a large amount of enzymatic cleaner, so soon I’ll be donning a rain jacket, work pants, head lamp, mask, and goggles, and attempting to clean the giant litter box they’ve made of my crawlspace. I’ve stopped feeding them, and will be applying “cat mace” to their usual areas of lingering. After a few days of not feeding, I think I can coax them into a giant cardboard box with some tuna, close it up, and get them to a stray shelter 30-40 miles away.

Until then, I’ve different scented candles in each room invaded by their pungent detritus. The smell of them has driven me half mad, while their incessant mewing and my sinus infection seems to be taking me the rest of the way.

Wish me luck. May god have mercy on me.