Made for Love (TV 2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

Made for Love (TV 2021): Reclusive tech billionaire implants a chip in wife's brain to know everything she sees, hears, thinks. No surprise, she's not OK with that. She's on the run. Part satire, part comedy, part tragedy, with not much new to say about tech or relationships. B-

The Suicide Squad (2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Suicide Squad (2021): Gratuitous, video-game violence with jokes. It never takes itself seriously. One anti-hero is Polka-Dot Man, who throws polka-dots at people. Think Dirty Dozen with super powers and the best monster since Ghostbusters. Teen boys might love it. C+

Ask Arefin

New councilmember Arefin Shamsul hosted a coffee klatsch at Communion Coffee. Attendees were encouraged to "Ask Arefin." Unfortunately, I didn't attend. My bad. But I do want to thank Councilmember Arefin for doing this. Listening to constituents is important. Let me repeat that. Listening to constituents is important. But so is keeping constituents informed so they can ask informed questions. That means two-way communication. It's important to explain to constituents the constraints the city faces in meeting their careabouts.

I have some understanding of what Arefin was asked. I don't know what Arefin answered. Let me offer what I would have answered.

Visit vaccines.gov to Learn More

Visit vaccines.gov to learn more. Sounds like innocuous advice, right? Not to the anti-vaxers. If it's McDonalds giving that advice to customers, it's considered practicing medicine without a license. It's considered an end run around the government regulations regarding drug advertising. Anti-vaxers and I live on different planets.

Source: redacted.

The Young Pope (TV 2017)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Young Pope (TV 2017): Jude Law as a young American elected Pope, the compromise candidate who proves to be his own man, authoritarian and just maybe an atheist. Expected show about bureaucratic infighting in Rome, instead saw the thin line between dictator and saint. B-

#VeryTardyReview

Palm Springs (2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

Palm Springs (2021): A bit of a nihilist (Andy Samberg) is trapped in a time loop. Then another guest at the wedding (Cristin Milioti) gets trapped. To surprise of both, romance blooms. Not original but it's fresh and fun. A worthy successor to Groundhog Day and Russian Doll. B+

Katla (TV 2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

Katla (TV 2021): Iceland. Volcanic eruption leads to strange things on a glacier. Dead people and clones come to life. What's going on? A sci-fi mystery and a study of loss and grief. It's bleak, gritty, and slow. In the end, it all comes together in a satisfactory resolution. B-

Paved A Way: Shingle Mountain

Amazon There's a pattern that runs through Collin Yarbrough's book. The neighborhoods he reports on all suffered from infrastructure development. The tools used against the neighborhoods were sometimes simple neglect, sometimes they were explicitly targeted. The end result was almost always the same: discrimination, disinvestment, deterioration. The patterns of racism continue to the present day. I'm reading "Paved A Way: Infrastructure, Policy and Racism in an American City" by Collin Yarbrough. The city is Dallas, Texas. I'm blogging as I go, using whatever parts of the book catch my attention. Today, we look at Shingle Mountain.

The Green Knight (2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Green Knight (2021): Adaptation of middle English Arthurian epic about Sir Gawain's quest. True to spirit of poem if not the details. A fantasy whose sets, lighting, pacing, and feel make the legends seem real and not just a CGI recreation. When myth and history merge. B+

Random Thoughts: Highs in the 80s in Texas in July

Tweets from July, 2021:

• 2021-07-01: I agree, Pete Delkus. Highs in the 80s in Texas in July are pretty amazing. Now say something about global warming. Be sure to mention that Portland, Oregon, now has a hotter all-time high temperature than Dallas, Texas.
• 2021-07-02: Headline: "Olympic sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson suspended one month after marijuana test." I didn't know marijuana was a performance enhancing drug. If it is, all the warnings about it when I was in school were a big fat lie.
• 2021-07-02: Gary Slagel has filed to run for Congress against Colin Allred. Expect Richardson to suffer a black eye as Slagel's history gets rehashed: CapitalSoft and StarTech, Richardson's bridge to Fossil Watch, Slagel's donation to Ill. Gov Rod Blagojevich before winning a govt. contract.
• 2021-07-03: No Sudden Move (2021): A heist movie set in Detroit in 1954. The object is engineering drawings. Or a mobster's code book. It doesn't matter. Neither do the plot twists. Just try to figure out who the bad guys are. The film noir feel more than makes up for a convoluted plot. B+
• 2021-07-05: I used to think American democracy was resilient. To survive 245 years, there had to be a stable super-majority who believed in democracy. I no longer have faith in that. I now believe close to half of Americans would trade democracy for autocracy to get their way in politics.

After the jump, more random thoughts.