Got a wild hair, updated my ten-years-fallow technical operations blog with a reading list I wrote up for my last job. This inexorably led to changing themes and doing some maintenance. This sort of industriousness will never last.
Population: One
In no particular order:
- Bainbridge Island (Streamliner Diner, Poulsbo and viking cups)
- Goofy train rides in Snoqualmie
- Ape Caves & maybe staring into the crater of Mount St. Helens
- Poke my nose into Cougar Mountain
- Big Four Ice Caves
I’m off work for a few weeks till my new job starts! Since I’m watching movies as a hobby this year, and since I like having some structure in my freedom:
- Finish up Fassbinder’s BRD Trilogy (I’ve seen The Marriage of Maria Braun)
- Finish up the Black Society Trilogy, by Fassbinder’s spiritual child, Takashi Miike (I’ve likewise seen the first movie, Shinjuku Triad Society)
A brief pause. How is there not an essay out there discussing the similarities between these two directors? A few people have mentioned their similar prolific tendencies, and okay, Miike isn’t out there working in experimental theater, but they’re both making movies about outsiders scraping to get by in an unjust society and at their best, they’re both cynically lyrical. I don’t think Miike was heavily influenced by Fassbinder and as far as I know Miike didn’t ever recalibrate his style after watching a lot of Douglas Sirk, but come on! They’re practically brothers!
Where was I?
- Take advantage of Scarecrow Video to watch some of the movies on my Criterion Challenge 2022 list that aren’t streaming on any services I have
- Do the usual run through some of the movies leaving the Criterion Channel this month
- Depending on my comfort level going to theaters:
- August 5-11: The Heroic Trio at NW Film Forum
- August 5-17: Medusa at Grand Illusion
- August 12th and 15th: La Notte at the Beacon
- August 17-21: Executioners at NW Film Forum
- August 18th: Miracle Mile at the Beacon
- August 19-25: Guillermo del Toro Auteur August at SIFF
- Maybe Nope somewhere, maybe Thor somewhere
Man, when I lay it out like that it’s more being around people than I’m totally stoked about. We will see; the trends are in the right direction around here right now.
Movies reviewed this week: Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean and Shinjuku Triad Society.
Movies reviewed this week: No Time to Die and Round Midnight.
We’re currently drinking the Sumatra Pantan Musara from Sisters Coffee Company and it’s really good! There’s a depth of base flavor here that goes beyond the advertised dark chocolate tasting notes. It’s incredibly full in the mouth without being over roasted. I want to drink this all the time.
Our previous shipment was Ethiopia Maduro Natural from Case Coffee. I didn’t review this because it didn’t make much of an impact; the berry notes weren’t really my thing.
Movies reviewed this week: Quantum of Solace and Desert Fury.
Movies reviewed this week: The River’s Edge.
Finished up the work discussed previously; I’m now planning on running an update weekly on Monday, which will aggregate the previous week’s reviews. There are working spoiler blocks. An example post: Movie Reviews: 6/27/2022 to 7/3/2022.
The code for all this is now public at https://github.com/BryantD/letterboxd-feed-wp.
Movies reviewed this week: Age of Bloom and Leave Her to Heaven.