What I Watched: Making the Cut, a super-fun reality television competition series. It has all the hooks – contestants assuming various set roles from villain to princess; judges who become self-parodies (looking at you, Jeremy Scott), creativity, and over-the-top emotion. It is also a fairly continuous product placement advertisement or Amazon, with many reminders that each week’s winner also has their winning looks translated into instant fashion in Amazon’s Making the Cut Store.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, “A new class of fashion designers are making it work. Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn return to guide 10 talents from across the world as they compete for a $1 million prize and then some in Making the Cut season three, which premieres today on Amazon Prime Video — and you can already shop the first winning collection online.”
Anyway, I like the interplay between hosts Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn, the unrelatable runway looks, and the whole shebang. Also (@matthewcrawley you will like this) Klum has a fun relationship history, having married or partnered with many talented, interesting folks: stylist Ric Pipino; Flavio Briatore, the managing director of Renault’s Formula One team; the musician Seal; her then bodyguard, Martin Kirsten; art curator Vito Schnabel, who is the son of artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel; and currently Tokio Hotel guitarist Tom Kaulitz.
What I Read: Old World War: Boundary Magic Book 6, by Melissa F. Olsen. This is current, urban, magic with witches, werewolves, vampires, bargests, and nulls mixed up with political intrigue, battle tactics, and the tiniest bit of romance. (This links gets you the first two chapters.) If you like Tilly Wallace books, you will most likely enjoy the full Old World series by Olsen. (Different era, same love of sarcasm and strong women.) Start with Scarlet Bernard books, then move into the associated Boundary magic and Disrupted Magic books.
Here is the blurb from Dead Spots (Scarlett Bernard Book 1), not the current book above, to start you on the full series:
Scarlett Bernard knows about personal space: step within ten feet of her, and anything supernatural is instantly neutralized—vampires and werewolves become human again, and witches can’t cast the slightest spell. Scarlett uses her status as a null to cover up crime scenes for Los Angeles’s three most powerful magical communities, helping them keep humanity, and the LAPD, in the dark. One night Scarlett gets caught at the scene of a grisly murder by the all-too-human LAPD cop Jesse Cruz, who blackmails her into a deal: he’ll keep quiet about the supernatural underworld if she helps him crack the case. Their pact doesn’t sit well with Dashiell, the city’s chief vampire, who fears his whole empire is at stake. And when the clues start to point to Scarlett herself, it’ll take more than her unique powers to catch the real killer and clear her name.
What I Listened To: Off My Mind by Aiden Ayers; Hollow Scene by Deep Tan; Feels Like A Dream featuring Perfume Genius by Alice Boman; Too Late for the Disco by Blood Wizard; and River by North Naim.
Thank you for playing Brain Drain! How are you, Dearest DeadSplinterites? What’s up with you?
Update: we saw the last two episodes of this year’s Making the Cut on Friday evening. (Not a spoiler.) The winner was who I had predicted, based on Heidi’s European glitterati fashion sense, and the fact that the judges pay only lip service to Amazon-accessible looks.
Very rarely do I get upset at a tv show but this one had me pissed. I never thought I would go on a 15 minute diatribe about fashion but this show made that happen.
I don’t really watch reality TV but I’d watch you two watching the finale of Making the Cut.
A friend of ours sent out a 90-second clip or so of her boyfriend RANTING about the end of “Peaky Blinders” after that series finale. He’s normally a very reserved guy, but his admittedly alcohol-fueled diatribe was very hilarious.
What I watched: Marathon Man, a 1976 Dustin Hoffman film, which is a pretty suspenseful film about a guy who stumbles unwittingly into a Nazi conspiracy in NYC. The film did a great job at holding my attention, which isn’t the easiest thing to do. I also was finally able to understand the now-old cultural joke: “Is it safe?”
What I read: Holy shit, somebody stop me. I read Gwendy’s Magic Feather, which is the 2nd book in the trilogy. I burned through those 330 pages like they were nothing.
What I listened to: Our latest stop on the tour of the best engineered albums of all time brings us to Genius Loves Company by Ray Charles and various and sundry guest artists. Released a couple of months after Ray’s death, this wasn’t just a make-a-quick-buck-and-slap-it-together album. This was a planned release and was recorded in 2003-4 and was only his second #1 album (the first being Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music in 1962. It was also the best selling record of his career, although I will submit that his death just prior to the release had something to do with that.
Now, the nature of the record–a series of duets with various artists–meant that the recording studios and personnel changed from track to track, which likewise means that the overall sonic quality is inconsistent. However, there are enough tracks on this album which were recorded very well and thus put this album on the list based on the package as a whole. There are a lot of tracks with a backing orchestra, and recording an orchestra is at once simple and deceptively difficult. As someone who used to specialize in recording them, I have a great appreciation for this album.
IIRC Marathon Man was noted for the dental torture scenes, pushing the on-screen violence envelope within film. And ha, yes, my friend, you are being sucked into the dark side of easy reading books!
I watched the first episode of 100 Foot Wave. The surfing is extremely hard for me to get my head around how it’s possible — it’s like a lot of rock climbing that seems beyond what people can manage.
There’s a scene where the featured person’s wife Nicole McNamara describes going out for the first time on a big wave with him and gets completely wiped out. She describes it as traumatic and it made her quit, saying something like “I like to breathe.” I completely sympathize.
Saw Thor Love and Thunder. Didn’t like it.
…haven’t seen love & thunder yet…but was hoping I’d like it?
…taika waititi, chris hemsworth & tessa thompson were a good combo in the one that was basically planet hulk…& the bits of the comics I’ve read from the jane-foster-is-thor run were pretty good
…but I think I saw somewhere that it had someone cast as a particular…I dunno if villain is the right word but maybe adversary…& if it does then that was a good arc…but that could be a whole movie on its own…so I guess I worry that it might give either or both short shrift trying to cram them into just one…or wind up being too busy & just sort of not work?
I thought the tone shifts were much too out of sync and the story was really slapdash. I don’t know how much of that was the studio throwing down too many notes or possibly not reining things in enough.
I really liked Waititi’s smaller NZ movies I’ve seen which seem a lot more balanced, so it’s also possible he needs a smaller sandbox to play in. But this seemed just stapled together.
…that’s a shame…but it sounds a bit like what happened with the batman movies that insisted on ever more villains per installment
…sometimes less is more?
Waititi is a multi-talented media darling these days; I like NZ and Australian television shows and should like his stuff.
…so…finally watched the last episode of westworld…hard to talk about that show without spoilers but if the next season is the last & it pulls things back around to being more similar to the first season than the latter ones…could be the whole might manage to be greater than the sum of its parts…would be nice if it was because it started out pretty great but it’s felt like it got away from them a bit the last season or two?
…& there’s a lot of stuff I’ve sort of started…seems to be a new season of the animated star trek sort-of-parody lower decks thing…& harley quinn
…& then there’s the dueling fantasy moneypits…both of which damn well ought to be good given the resources that have been thrown at them…along with apparently a million weird-sounding character names it’s not exactly easy to keep straight
…but despite having a hard time taking mat smith seriously as an evil targaryen I guess the house of the dragon seems to be what it says on the tin
…& the rings of power seems to be moving along at a decent clip…particularly if you compare it to the hobbit movies?
Appreciate your pov on viewing from shows that are not within my basic genre. It is good to have recommended shows to widen my outlook.
…think it’s fair to say that all those are “if you like that sort of thing”
…lower decks wouldn’t be funny if you haven’t seen enough star trek to find that galaxy quest film funny…& even then some trek-friendly folks aren’t fond of it
…harley quinn is a fun cartoon series & you could say something similar about it helping to be familiar with the source material but it’s got a bit of the harley as seen in the last birds of prey film with the long title…& a bit of the lego batman style of poking fun by having commissioner gordon be a doofus & such
…westworld/house of the dragon/rings of power are maybe a little different
…westworld is a sort of a puzzlebox kind of a show…particularly the first season…which wouldn’t appeal to everyone & requires a lot of attention to detail to put it all together so it makes sense
…the other two essentially presuppose a lot of homework to really understand the context but look to have been made with a view to making the narrative make sense to people who haven’t done that
…so the dragon one hints pretty broadly at where things are going everytime it names someone you see…but I’m pretty sure the lord of the rings one is hedging some beta by revealing some new & maybe hiding some behind otherwise newly-minted characters
…all three deliver expensive spectacle & a decent size helping of escapism?
I have seen various forms of WestWorld. Probably not this recent version. I have liked it.
After finding out my friend Mike won an Emmy for 100 Ft Wave, I had to watch the full 1st season. It is a great documentary but left me questioning my life choices. I started seriously shooting the same time as him and another buddy that are both now world class cinematographers but my life took a different path. I sat there wondering if I should have stuck with it or if I would be dead by now if I did? I’ve been having weird dreams since and not sleeping well. I actually had to email Mike just to tell him I missed him, congratulations, and hope to hook up with him next time we are in the islands or if he wants to come here, I got a room for him. In typical fashion, he sent me back a message back right away with similar sentiments but I know he never has time for me. I’ll run into him at some point but our days of hanging out and surfing or shooting together are past. This short documentary on him is pretty inspiring and starts with a mutual Tahitian friend of ours…
I’m listening to Bumsy & the Moochers
Looks like I’m bacheloring it for the weekend so time to start my smoky brew day as we are finally getting the shitty forest fire smoke blowing in.
…I can see how that’s a lot to think about…& you’d know better than I what the odds are of managing to hang out that way
…but it’s been my experience that some friends don’t necessarily seem that way unless you keep up with them in that kind of sense…but others you can barely swap a word with for months or years but when you do get in a room with them again it feels like no time has passed
…so…you never know?
Thanks for that, it is like time has never passed when we do get together now, it just seems like that only happens for funerals any more. I’m just glad I didn’t have to go to his as you will see if you watched the end of that video.
I’ve only seen the first episode, but the scene where they run through all the surfer deaths is sobering.
Strangely, I haven’t lost as many friends surfing as I have to that lifestyle making them feel invincible & not surviving some other extreme activity. The Mark Foo one was hard though, we thought he was invincible until that day at Mavericks.
Do you still surf at all @Loveshaq? That short documentary was beautiful, and the subject matter – your islands, ocean, and surfing communities – are amazingly beautiful.
Wow, I thought I replied but can’t find my comment. I do still surf but much more conservatively than before. I don’t get to the islands enough to be in surf shape so can’t really safely handle the big waves anymore. That video definitely made me miss the ocean and my surf friends.
Watching Neflix “Running With The Devil” about paranoid bath salts snorting former tech guru John McAfee’s flight from Belize to Guatemala as seen by Vice Journalists after he may or may not have killed his neighbor over the poisoning of McAfee’s aggressive guard dogs.
This is what drugs do. The paranoia. The delusions of grandeur. The flying monkeys (Vice journos and his GF.) The murdering of his neighbor (who doesn’t sound like a normal person either.) Also throw in an unhealthy amount of coke and it feels like I’m watching Cokehead Narcissist if she were a 75 year old man.
It’s Apocalypse Now meets Hunter S. Thompson meets absurdist comedy with an unhealthy amount of paranoia and “bath salts” (this story does not happen without bath salts.)
It’s no wonder he pissed away his fortune.
I read a long interview with him from his Belieze compound (maybe in Wired or Vice). His brain was brilliant and damaged, eh?
Less on the brilliant. More on the brain damage caused by bath salts.
I should check out Making the Cut, I like Tim Gunn. I’m still watching Reservation Dogs. This week’s episode included Marc Maron. It was very sweet and loving. Also watched episode 3 of The Patient, gripping drama.
I finished Curious Toys and loved it. It is about a serial child killer but doesn’t have graphic violence. My only criticism is that if a reader didn’t know who Henry Darger was I don’t think they’d really understand his character.
Nice tunes again this week @Elliecoo. I especially liked the Deep Tan track. Listening to my local college radio.
Henry’s Dress – Hey Alison
Thanks, @Hannibal (blushes). I like yours, too, adding to my playlist.
…reservation dogs is in my list but I thought I was late enough I might wait for the whole season to be available?
I sort of wish I had waited for the whole season.
READ:
An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson. A revolutionary travel book at the time (1878!), this details a canoe trip that the author took with a friend through Belgium and France via a couple different waterways. Would recommend if you like travel literature.
LISTENED:
Turnstile’s Glow On album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIOGUOH_xk4&list=PLMzepslwWUzoYkx4hlgoHlyieSmsr1YBv
Considered hard-core (really?), I’m hearing a lot of pop-punk in here, which is just fine with me.
WATCHED:
Since I’m bacheloring it this weekend, I binged Moon Knight on Disney+ last night. While it had some innovative story-telling elements, overall it did very little for me.
I don’t really recommend it, although if you have time to kill and want some innovative plot twists, you could do worse. I think I need to check out Sandman next.
Sandman was good. It took me two episodes for it to “click” for me, but once I understood what was going on, well, it just kept getting better.
I’ve watched the first 4 episodes of Sandman. Better than Moon Knight, but not easy for me to follow. Question to the comics-guys (@SplinterRIP): Is the Constantine in this series a reinterpretation of John Constantine?