Miami Vice
Good film directors tend to take upon themselves projects that risk being misunderstood sometimes. An artist can't just draw the same drawing over and over. He wants to experiment. Director Michael Mann is famous with his films about crime. And the realistic depiction of what crime and police work actually looks like. But if you are doing this over and over, you tend to become interested in something else. Which is terrible for a director who has fans with certain expectations.
Forcing Cashless
This article will be strangely related to something I had experienced just recently. And quite frankly somewhat related to the Moria's Race project. I will talk about means, or in this particular case, a mean, that governments sometimes use to push people into doing what the governments like people to do.
My Girl
Between the 1970s to the 1990s there was a very interesting period in Hollywood. Directors like Steven Spielberg came from relative nobodies to super-stars. Which inspired a lot of directors to take upon the formula of sentimental adventure and try doing something else with it. My Girl looks like a movie clearly inspired by Spielberg, but not quite Spielbergian, in a sense that it doesn't deal with extraordinary circumstances, but rather deals with a family and friendship dynamics.
Spy Kids Armageddon
I did not expect Spy Kids Armageddon to be any good. It is written and directed by Robert Rodriguez. A guy who doesn't care about quality that much. His view on film-making was shaped by his first filming experience in 1992 when he made El Mariachi. A movie so cheap that it was weird to a lot of people that it was an action film. Rodriguez has this idea that he can cheat his way into making anything at all. Using as he says "creativity instead of money". So most of his movies tend to look like the Star Wars prequels. A lot of pretty noticeable green screen. Tons of CGI where most other people would use practical props. And strange camera work which is probably more dictated by the limitations of his methods, and not by actual directorial decisions.
Matchstick Men
It is very sad when a movie barely scratches to earn back the money that it was cost to make. Sometimes the movie sucks and that explains everything. But sometimes we get films like Tenet, Blade Runner 2049 and Hugo. Wonderful amazing movies that failed to be the sensations they deserve to be. You know, the kind of feeling today's kids have when they type "This should have got more views" in the comments on YouTube.
Dumb Phones
"You know they are listening to us this very moment?" - said Jake to Tom on a party one night. "What are you talking about?" - Tom was obviously confused. So Jake had to continue - "You know the Facebook app and the Google app on your phone is constantly recording what we have to say to each other, forming an opinions on us. They claim it's for advertising. But they can use it for anything they want. You know?". Tom looked at Jake with a slight smile. He knew he had a very good comeback. After a short pause Tom said - "I use a dumb phone." - and went into the party. But Jake didn't stop feeling bad. Jake didn't use no phone at all.
3 Dimentional Political Spectrum
When it comes to the utter war between Libertarians and Conservatives, the so called, Right and Left sides of the political spectrum, a lot of people avoid the fighting by simply choosing the center. I, on the other hand joke sometimes that the best option is to choose the square root of -1.
Insecurity
Sometimes software is just simply Insecure. Which is a lot worse in proprietary software where users can't check the software for Insecurities.
Subscription
Though unfortunately Subscriptions in software today are the norm, they are a malicious functionality. Any software that you already have installed should work whenever you want it to work. Having a timer implemented in it, so it will refuse to work, unless you pay every once in a while, is malicious.
No Respect For Those Who Give Up
When I was about 16 years old I went into my friend's house and saw a guitar. Without even having any money I asked him "How much for the guitar?". And bought it immediately. I had to return him chunks of money for the next year or so. A bit later, an old lady living in the same building as my mom, who was once a musician, decided that I worth be given a small electronic piano. Obviously I was quite excited to learn to make music and so I decided to record a bunch of songs. Which ended up being my first album ( 2015 ) "No Respect For Those Who Give Up".
The Vast Of Night
It's so weird to be watching The Vast Of Night almost right after No One Will Save You. One movie has no dialogue, while the other is just dialogue. To be honest, it might seem very strange to make a film so dialogue heavy, if we didn't have people like Quentin Tarantino who shows time and time again that movies with a lot of dialogue can work fantastically.
Overworked And Underpaid
We all heard by now that the situation in Hollywood is not very good at the moment. A lot of Visual Effects artists are overworked and underpaid resulting in some atrocious CGI like in The Flash 2023. Studios even considering replacing those overworked and underpaid VFX artists with AI technology. Because it can make better images and complain less about its conditions at work.
Lars and the Real Girl
It was very nice to have a marathon of Ryan Gosling movies, because I stumbled upon this unique masterpiece. Lars and the Real Girl is a story about a sad relationship. About a man named Lars and his girl named Bianca who is sick and getting worse and worse with every passing day. The twist is, Bianca is actually a live sized sex doll.
Entropy Is Freedom And It Increases
Once upon the time there was a group of molecules that was oppressed. And there was another group of molecules next to this one that was also oppressed. Both of them had long established traditions of staying in the group and behaving a certain way. But the oppressed molecules decided to riot. Those on the edge with the other group started mixing together and creating interesting patterns never before seen. Molecules on the far end were confused about all of the movement. Suddenly one or two molecules from the other group traveled to those far regions and were not very welcome by the molecules there. But the mixing continued and patterns became more and more complex, until one time the entire thing was mixed as well as it could be and all molecules were equally spread around.
Vampire's Kiss
Francis Ford Coppola, a director behind things like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now did not direct Vampire's Kiss. It was directed by Robert Bierman. A director who did mostly work for TV. And who's directing style is not necessarily bad. I don't think he is bad. The movies do not feel terribly directed. It's just it seems that as a director he is not necessarily exciting.
The Pentas
Pentas are 5 gong-style round drum-things which are used to play simple melodies. Each one of those is one note in a scale called the Pentatonic scale. If you take the modern western scale with it's 7 notes (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si). The pentatonic scale is the best sounding 5 of those (Do, Re, Mi, Sol, La). The easiest way of achieving the pentatonic scale on a piano would be to play only the black keys. Also the pentatonic scale is quite popular with beginner guitarists. It's rather simple on a fret-board and gives a nice sounding solo when improvising. The Pentas - being my second album, was still recorded during my time learning the guitar. So I used a lot of the pentatotic scale in it. Thought quite frankly, knowing about the other two notes (Fa and Si) I added them quite often still.
I Just Poored My Depression Into Emacs
You stand nearly motionless in a court. It doesn't matter if you did anything, or if you're there by mistake. The judge and the jury finds you guilty and the reality of the situation doesn't matter anymore. You will be executed. What would be your last few weeks? What would be your last day? What would it taste like to eat your last meal? What would it feel like to walk towards the execution room? What would feel like to stand there while the officers put a bag on your head? What would feel like to die?
Should Paternalism Be Illegal
Sheiny was in Mendel's house that day. She was looking at some random things on her computer. You know... Getting into a yet another rabbit-hole on Wikipedia. She clicked on a link to an article about Paternalism. And on the right side, beside the text of the article, there was a picture with a caption "Child on a leash". The picture is depicting a child with a rope tied to her torso, which is held by an elderly woman. This image infuriated Sheiny to such an extend that for the next few minutes she could not even talk. How dare they?
