POTD: Toritos de Pucará

From 2019 08 18 Sacred Valley, Peru

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Chinchero in the Sacred Valley in Peru. It shows two clay Pucara Bulls on a rooftop. It could be any of countless rooftops in central and southern Peru. The two bulls are placed on the roof when a new house is completed, a promise of protection, happiness, and fertility within.

POTD: Llama, Llama, Llama

From 2019 08 18 Sacred Valley, Peru

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Sacred Valley in the Andes Mountains of Peru. You know what that means. Llamas. If this photo doesn't get you excited about that, maybe the Llama Song will.

Cats (2019)

Rotten Tomatoes

Cats (2019): The costumes/makeup/CGI is distracting. The comic relief doesn't work (dancing cockroaches?). The plot is thin. But so? Cats is what it is, a musical made from a book of poetry about cats. It's always been about the singing and dancing. Critics hate it. I like it. B+

The Two Popes (2019)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Two Popes (2019): Conversations between Benedict and Francis when Benedict decided to retire. Two very different men, with different philosophies, portrayed by two great actors. Only action comes from flashbacks to Francis's early career, which deserve their own movie. B+

Random Thoughts: Big Ten Football in the Snow

Tweets from December, 2019:

• 2019-12-01: Big Ten football in the snow. Wisconsin gets Paul Bunyan's Axe, clinches Big Ten West championship and a place in the Big Ten title game.
• 2019-12-01: The Irishman (2019): Scorsese directs De Niro, Pacino, Pesci (that's all you need) in a 3.5 hour intimate epic (there can be such a thing) about the mob and the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. A disapproving look from De Niro's daughter, just a look, supplies the morality. A-
• 2019-12-03: Ford v Ferrari (2019): A sports movie. A good one, but still. Predictable plot. Two-dimensional characters. Clichéd dialog. The guys from Ford are supposed to be the good guys, but I found myself cheering for the "wops" from Ferrari. Good performance by Christian Bale. B-
• 2019-12-06: The Sixth Extinction: Global warming, ocean acidification, crop and animal disease, poor land use patterns, all are involved in extinctions rivaling the death of the dinosaurs. Why don't we act? If anything, this book is not alarmist enough. B-

After the jump, more idle thoughts.