Saturday Morning Brain Drain [24/6/23]

sticks in your mind

24/6/23 butcherbakertoiletrymaker 25

What I watched:  61* which is the story of Roger Maris’ record-breaking home run year.  Structurally speaking, it had all the hallmarks to expect a b-movie experience:  not very well-known actors, movie I’ve never heard of, production values were not the best.  But, the movie was actually very good.  Well-written, well-acted and the story line and pacing were likewise enjoyable.  I recommend it.

What I read: The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe.  I’ve always heard what a good read this is.  I own the movie and I’ve watched the mini-series (the mini-series was better), but never got around to reading the book.  It really is a fascinating story, although I will say that Wolfe’s prose was hard to get used to.  It’s like he writes in the 1st and 3rd person simultaneously.  Anyway, if you can get past that, read the book.

What I listened to:  Delta Moon

What’s new on your cultural radar?  Tell us all about it.

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About butcherbakertoiletrymaker 603 Articles
When you can walk its length, and leave no trace, you will have learned.

25 Comments

  1. The Right Stuff is a fun book. The movie is a decent adaptation too, although obviously heavily cut down.

    I got caught up on the new season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I hadn’t realized it had started weeks ago. It’s been funny so far and really dumb.

  2. I gave Glamorous a chance. You shouldn’t. It’s like the made for Canadian TV rip-off of The Devil Wears Prada but doesn’t even attempt to have a Tucci stand-in (not that anyone could do him justice). The writing and acting are terrible like one would expect to find in a Christmas romcom. They lean into artificial lense flare heavily and for no reason which becomes farcical once you start noticing it. It was like watching Star Trek (2009) which would be a way better use of your time (obviously).

    https://youtu.be/I-BuvvNexA8

    I also watched the first episode of Schlafende Hunde/Sleeping Dog. It bothers me that the “dog” part wasn’t pluralized. Either it infringed on a video game copyright or the title was written by the people who wrote the subtitles. Don’t let my hangups stop you from enjoying the murder conspiracy especially since it stars that German hottie from Sense8. Yes even as a defeated, beaten man suffering from PTSD/amnesia/sinister flashbacks, he is still hot and gets nackedei for my delight a shower scene.

    https://youtu.be/ma5qkfSofyA

  3. I watched the second season of Sweet Tooth thanks to @Elliecoo, so glad she let me know it was available.

    I read Foe by Iain Reid. I loved I’m Thinking of Ending Things and was looking forward to it. But it’s another skip-it from me. I enjoy his trippy, atmospheric prose but the premise was silly. Set in an unspecified future, a man wins a mandated lottery and is set to go into space for two years. To keep his wife from being alone in their rural home, the government sends an agent to get to know the couple so they can substitute a replica of him. With her knowledge. Since she knows about it why bother? They could send anyone to keep her company. There was growing tension and beautiful imagery, but the twist was obvious and I couldn’t get past the setup.

    • Sounds like the plot of that Black Mirror episode “Beyond the Sea” with Josh Hartnett and Kate Mara that I didn’t enjoy because it was so patronizing and sexist. They set it in the 70’s as if to mansplain and excuse the men’s entitled attitudes towards their wives and kids. SPOILERS I liked the concept of having a replica avatar of yourself that you beam your consciousness into. They could have done some cool shit with that tech. Instead they fridged Hartnett’s family and in his traumatic grief he tries to usurp his fellow astronaut’s family. When he doesn’t get what he wants and thinks he is belittled by the wife, he murders them. All the while I’m wondering why didn’t they just send the replicas into space instead of vice versa.

      • …that’s the kind of “but why?” issue that really undermines a thing…when it just doesn’t make sense not to have done it differently but the differently version makes the whole story never happen

        …sometimes you can pull it off…like, was it maybe the big bang theory that had a whole scene where they try to disprove the hypothesis that if indiana jones had just stayed in his lecture theatre the whole thing with the ark would have played out the same anyway…& they can’t?

  4. …watched the rest of the second season of perry mason…which was pretty solid

    …& what were apparently a handful of entirely forgettable films?

    …I should probably start taking notes or I’m going to end up watching them again because I can’t remember I ought to know better

    …oh…& the covenant…was that this week or did I go on about it already?

    …guy ritchie flick but a bit more like generation kill than lock, stock…about afghanistan & translators & trying to get a guy out…so you sort of know the rails it’s on but it was pretty solid

    • I am in the middle of season one of Perry Mason. Boy oh boy – talk about film noir! This is not the Perry Mason of my childhood. I’ve not read any of the Erle Stanley Gardner books, and probably should, because i am curious about the WWI backstory, the questionable morality of the times, and the interweaving of the Aimee Elizabeth Semple McPherson-like character.

  5. Secret Invasion had their first episode on Disney+. MCU show, those assholes need to stop with the fridging.

    I’m most of the way through Take Care of Maya, documentary on Netflix about a family where the state of Florida decided they were medically abusing their daughter. It’s a very good documentary, I’ve got about 35 minutes left.

  6. Watching Denis Villeneuve’s version of Dune.

    Much closer to the David Lynch version than I thought. Much better visuals and acting from the lead. As much as I enjoyed the 1984 Lynch movie, I found Kyle McLaughlin to be too robotic and not human enough. I didn’t know what the fuck he was thinking…

    He was much more convincing as an alien pretending to be a human being in the SF cult movie “The Hidden.”

    Dune is a tough story to film considering that the technology is really out there and there isn’t much dependence on computers and pew pew lasers (ironic considering the CGI required for the worms.) A lot of the tech is still “magic” to us.

    I liked the first two novels but after that they lost me. I guess I couldn’t get over the whole mysticism of Paul and becoming a worm. I guess I’m not all that imaginative or spiritual. I thought Frank spent too much time on magic ‘shrooms.

    Just found it exceptionally weird that humanity was so dependent on space worm shit to build an empire.

  8. omg……this is completely off topic

    decided to try some argan oil for my hair….as i am a frizzy fucker

    omg….it smells so good

    i dont even care if it helps now

    i smell so fucking good i need another me to bury my nose in that hair

  9. I watched the 30 for 30 episodes on Bill Walton:

    It was excellent.  I wasn’t a big fan of him when he did NBA coverage but now I find him pretty entertaining as he seems stoned when he calls college games.

    Reading: David Sedaris book A Carnival of Snackery which is pretty funny like all his books.

    Listening to Frank & Vinny

  10. I haven’t been reading offline much, buuuut I’ve been rabbit-holing pretty regularly, because of stuff I’ve seen mentioned over on the autism & adhd subs I read fairly regularly, over on Reddit…

    And have… discovered, I guess? some things which–like so many of the AFAB** people on those subreddits, are apparently often “Autism Things!” or “ADHD Things!” and as SO many others there have said, “NOT just a *me* being weird thing!”😉😂🥴

    ARFID fits with the gag-reflex issues I’ve had around certain textures of food, since I was a young child… I never had the *problems* with it, and/or a truly BAD case of it, because I was lucky enough to grow up *here* with a Mom who simply avoided my trigger foods…but man, was it interesting to discover *this* is probably why certain food textures are literally gag-inducing…

    And now that I know ARFID is a *thing,* i can hell my work kids who seem to be presenting with it–by *sharing* info about it with their grownups–so the grownups KNOW it’s *not* just the child “Being Picky!” and they can get the kiddo checked out, before it causes malnutrition & other problems!😉😁🤗💖

    ARFID

    https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/learn/by-eating-disorder/arfid

    I also discovered info about two *other* things I’ve dealt with on & off, all my life–Autistic Burnout, and Autistic Catatonia… The Autistic Catatonia stuff *really* jibes with what I went through, after burning up the last of my “spoons” as I was trying to cook supper on the last day of pre-k a couple weeks ago… the “stuck” feelings i was *trying* to push through, where I *couldn’t* get my brain to work right, or get my body to move… that night when it took 45 minutes, to do *THREE* minutes of microwaving…

    https://autisticburnout.blogspot.com/

    https://autisticburnout.blogspot.com/2023/05/autistic-burnout-and-autistic-catatonia.html

    https://autismawarenesscentre.com/autism-related-catatonia/

    https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/professional-practice/catatonia-autism

     

    The other thing I’ve been rabbithole-ing about the last couple days, is the Yevgeny Prigozhin/Wagner thing occurring in Russia…

    Russia/the Soviet Union has been an “off & on” fascination-topic for me, since they were “The Enemy” when we Americans here were kids…

    When I went to the “sumer camp for smart kids” that I attended afterc5th grade, I went there to take the Russian class😆😂🤣

    I thought it sounded interesting, *and* I wanted to go to it, after I learned about it, because I grew up in a place where we were always *told* to “Learn about & understand your enemies/adversaries!” (No matter that–apparently, like the things they said about Racism & Othering, those instructions to “learn” weren’t actually meant to be true!🙃🙃🙃)

    Anyway… between the childhood experiences with Russian at camp, *and* the Cold War, *and* the fact that I’ve got an Aunt from a former Soviet Republic, and have had *multiple* co-workers who immigrated from places like  Belarus, Ukraine, & Latvia–and I’ve known LOTS of folks who are *impacted* by Russian meddling–whether it’s Wagner mercenaries conscripting or hiring folks in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere…

    The food insecurities & famine occurring in African countries, due to the devastation in Ukraine, the lack of access to fertilizers, and fuel both to *transport* food, AND to run farm equipment… and the fact that Wagner has rented out Mercenaries to Warlords to fight in-person *and* proxy-wars for *years* now…

    Out of respect for the folks I work with, and THEIR caring about friends & family “back home,” I’ve always felt a sense of duty to at least *somewhat* stay abreast of what’s going on there–and stay at least *semi* updated, on what calamaties Oligarch-owned entities like The Wagner Group are meddling in…

    So to read yesterday, that Prigozhin had apparently BROKEN with ‘ol Pooty-Poot, withdrawn from Ukraine, and taken over Rostov-on-Don?!?!??

    It VERY MUCH makes me wonder if there’s perhaps some accuracy about the rumors, months back, about… both discontent amongst Putin’s underlings *and* a possible/likely power-vacuum under him (with some of those rumors referring to him being relatively isolated, too, snd surrounded with incompetent yes-men…).

     

    Prigozhin is an Oligarch… he made his way up from prisoner to “hotdog-stand guy” to “restraunteur” to eventual Oligarch status by seeing needs-gaps, filling them, and being USEFUL to ol Pooty-Poot…

    For Prigozhin to *VISIBLY* turn on Pooty-Poot’s war?!???

    That’s INCREDIBLY INTERESTING, in a mind-blowing, “WTAF?!?!???” sort of a way!

    YES, today he stopped the March on Moscow…

    But for how long?🤔🤔🤔

    This could literally have ramifications *WORLD* wide!!!

    On the one hand, YES, Wagner has been losing fighters left and right–and being hit by their *own* side, while being starved of weapons, ammo, and honestly probably literal food, too, was a likely factor in yesterday’s actions.

    But for one of Putin’s TOP allies, who he’s *used* to fight *countless* Proxy Wars & launder immeasurable funds over the last couple decades to *VISIBLY* turn against the Kremlin & call them out?!?

    That’s a HUGE-ASS deal, y’all–and that just *might* be one of those signals we all loon back on, at some point in the future, and say, “THIS was a turning point…”

    Some other articles on it;

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/24/yevgeny-prigozhin-the-hotdog-seller-who-rose-to-the-top-of-putin-war-machine-wagner-group

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/06/24/rostov-on-don-wagner-group-base-yevgeny-prigozhin-coup/

    https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-wagner-prigozhin-9acbdf1eda849692ca0423a4116058d1

    It’s *especially* interesting, in light of the news about Navalny’s associate being found “guilty,” and Nataliya being brought up on “new” charges–since Navalny’s investigations into corruption & *specifically* The Wagner Group were a part of what *originally* made Navalny an Enemy of Putin, ended up causing that Assassination attempt, and landed Navalny in prison in the first place…

    https://www.npr.org/2023/06/16/1182690674/russia-lilia-chanysheva-navalny-prison-sentence

    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/russian-court-prepares-new-trial-jailed-kremlin-foe-99726288

     

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