To The Wonder (TV 2024)

IMDB

To The Wonder (TV 2024): Chinese. Han girl dreams of being a writer in a big city, but returns to her remote Xinjiang village when she fails. A simple, heartfelt tale with beautiful scenes and rare insight into nomadic life in rural China. Only watched 2 of 8 episodes but want to watch more. B-

Inflight

Atlas (2024)

Rotten Tomatoes

Atlas (2024): Jennifer Lopez in a star vehicle sci-fi movie whose problem isn't her acting, but the script. Advertised as runaway AI, the robots' threat comes from their super strength, not their brains. Using a neural link to combine a still loyal robot's strength and knowledge database with J-Lo's ingenuity saves the world. C-

Netflix

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 (2024)

Rotten Tomatoes

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 (2024): Kevin Costner sets the American Western back 75 years. Indians are the bad guys. Cavalry are noble. Ruthless gunmen run the place. Too many undeveloped characters. Three hours of plodding subplots, and this is just chapter 1. C+

Max

POTD: Into the Bush

"Bushland, river, sky,
Each new path holds wild wonders,
Eyes wide, hearts alive."
— h/t ChatGPT

From 2023 11 04 Zimbabwe

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Zimbabwe. It's a track through the bush of Zambezi National Park. We took a half dozen rides of several hours through such bush, sometimes thick like this, sometimes open grassland, sometimes along a river, sometimes through wooded land. Sometimes we took to the water in boats, looking for hippos, crocodiles, or even elephants crossing the Zambezi River. We did this in South Africa, in Zimbabwe, and in Botswana. Watching for wildlife never got old.

POTD: Mosi-oa-Tunya, "Thundering Smoke"

"Mile-wide in full flood,
Rainbow in Thundering Smoke.
We stand in wonder."
— h/t ChatGPT

From 2023 11 04 Zimbabwe

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Victoria Falls, "a waterfall on the Zambezi River, located on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is one of the world's largest waterfalls, with a width of 1,708 m (5,604 ft)." We were there in the dry season, which is why there are gaps in the waterfall. We were told that in the rainy season, the falls are filled a mile wide with so much water that all you can see is mist. That's what gives the falls the name Mosi-oa-Tunya, "Thundering Smoke." All in all, we were more than happy with the view we got.