London Grammar … love her voice … I can hear some Tanita Tikaram in there? Hey Now … the host doesn’t mean she was “taken aback” … “stunned” maybe.
Legs of One Belt, One Road Initiative
After reading about truck convoys delivering goods to Europe from China, I wondered about the overland route they are using. These are apparently the overland legs of the One Belt, One Road Initiative. Looks like a long trip. Click on the images to enlarge them.
Xian to Lanzhou (8 hours)
Lanzhou to Urumqi (19 hours)
Urumqi to Khorgas (7 hours)
Khorgas to Almaty (no suggested route but looks like a straight shot)
Almaty to Bishkek (5 hours)
Bishkek to Samarkand (14 hours)
Samarkand to Dushanbe (5.5 hours)
Dushanbe to Tehran (28 hours)
Tehran to Istanbul (31 hours)
Istanbul to Moscow (30 hours)
Moscow to Duisburg (37 hours)
Duisburg to Rotterdam (4 hours)
Movies Watched -- Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)
126 minute running time so a half hour too long … story about an FBI informant who infiltrated the Black Panther organization in Chicago … asserts that the FBI under Hoover arranged for the assassination of a Black Panther leader named Fred Hampton … I don’t know any of this history or how accurate it is … looked like a fairly big budget picture … the evil psychopath cracker kid from Breaking Bad is cast as an evil psychopath FBI agent here … he’s always terrifying. I wasn’t interested, but this was a Farr recommendation.
What will you do when your daughter brings home a Negro?
Movies Watched -- The Rapture (1991)
100 minute running time but I didn’t make it far in before going to 8x fast forward … Mimi Rogers is a handsome woman with a great pair of jugs, but this was just terrible … a W.D. By movie, I can’t believe Michael Tolkin got funding for this, it’s just mind-boggling that anyone gave him money … I pray he was never able to make another movie. Whom do I have to blame for this? John Farr. Farr usually gets things right, but when he gets it wrong, it’s very wrong. Agent Fox Mulder, with a mullet, couldn’t act his way out of a paper bag. Great abs though … might explain the Farr reco. Geez.
Dick Brody got it all wrong: “It’s one of the most terrifying of religious films; an astounding synthesis of style and subject, it merges the meticulously practical and the terrifyingly visionary with a breathtaking audacity.” No, Dick, it’s just crap.
(I didn’t realize until perusing Mimi’s IMDb that she played “Money” Chandler in “Bosch” (an Amazon TV show I enjoyed.))
Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain.
Movies Watched -- The Boss Of It All (2006)
99 minute running time … a TWTR buddy suggested this Lars Von Trier comedy (?!?) since I loved Breaking the Waves … maybe this was funny if you knew Danish, sort of a “The Office” vibe, workplace humor, and pretentious theater humor, I guess. I didn’t make it very far in before throwing in the towel. A waste of a borrow really, but I’m used to that. Skip it.
There will be no f*cking until you get a proper bl*w job….
You Left Me BRKN
Spotify algo suggested … strong voice, talented singer … and she’s beautiful. Interesting article about Madison Ryann Ward in the University of Oklahoma magazine.
Movies Watched -- Minari (2020)
115 minute running time so at least 20 minutes too long … immigrant story, Korean couple with two kids who go to Arkansas (?!?) in the 1980s … Dad wants to be a farmer, not just a chicken sexer, and his more practical wife isn’t thrilled … lots of heart-warming piano music … trials and tribulations, but they don’t face any real racism or nastiness, it was all pretty sunny stuff … I wasn’t thrilled. John Farr reco’d this, but I sure wouldn’t.
God please save our family.
The Ability To Lose Money
Nice discussion about poker and day trading:
Movies Watched -- Ammonite (2020)
117 minute running time so at least 30 minutes too long … a W.D. By movie (I think he’s gay) … a lesbian love story set in the 1840s … Kate Winslet plays the handsome man (who’s stacked) and Saoirse Ronan plays the elven princess … there’s some serious muff diving, but I just didn’t care about any of it, and it’s slooooww … it wasn’t badly made, in many ways it’s very good, but it just wasn’t for me. This was a John Farr reco, but I say give it a miss.
Adam Graham gets it right: “[It] never really catches fire. It's just a lot of smoke, which makes it even harder to see through the film's hazy lens.”
Rex liked it, but writes: “The movie is also ponderously slow—the cinematic equivalent of liquid valium.” And: “Ammonite has moments of delicacy and beauty, but it’s not a movie for everybody.”
We should share the bed
My Six Screen Layout
This is what I look at all day long. I love it so much I’d do it for free, which is exactly how much I make, after borrow costs.