#in short i think david lynch is a master for this reason but man if it isn’t hard (and important! but hard!) to engage with!

[leonardcohenofficial]

there’s a great write up by someone on here that i will have to search for in which they discuss how the ultimate evil for david lynch is sexual violence against women (even more severe than murder, which is often auxiliary to that type of specific violence); twin peaks is incredibly soapy—on purpose! lynch and frost are playing with form and content on purpose to examine incredibly difficult subject matter through a (for lack of a better word) more palatable format—which most of the time i think works to its advantage and makes those moments of visible horror so much more effective (i use “visible” rather than “true” or other similar adjectives because the horror is always there, it’s embedded in the entire town, shows up in every generation we see in screen and we watch them grapple with it in different ways, but that’s a separate post)

however—and i’ve talked about this before—i find that once you’ve watched fire walk with me it is so much harder to watch the show because the ignorance of nearly every single member of the town (yes, including cooper) pervades the way the action unfolds. twin peaks viewers knew the premise of the show going in and we get to discover details and information alongside the characters. when albert rosenfield comes in as the only voice of reason and reality, it’s set up to be jarring to both the townspeople and to the viewer. why?

sheryl lee said in an interview, “fire walk with me was very difficult for me to watch… and, emotionally it’s a reminder: this is a movie, but this continues to happen every day and how can we stop it? when i watch fire walk with me now, as a mother, i watch it and i think look at all those signs that were being exhibited. this girl was in danger, and look at all these people that were in her life. what would have happened if someone, somewhere, somehow could have helped or stopped it? that’s hard to watch.”

much has been discussed critically about fire walk with me and whether or not it’s exploitative in the ways that it portrays sexual violence against women. while lynch does not shy away from making that violence visible, it is done so in an attempt to make the viewer examine their own relationship to that violence and how it shows up in their own lives. the audience is forced to think about the ways that they are complicit in how and why these violent acts occur and what they can do to stop it, which is why for many it is an uncomfortable watch. for others, it is a painful (and speaking from my own perspective) necessary watch because lynch didn’t make a horror movie, he made a documentary.

fire walk with me is necessary (in my humblest of opinions) to understand why the pieces that lynch and frost put into twin peaks work. there’s so much backstory to how they weren’t originally going to reveal who laura palmer’s killer was until ABC made them, lynch wasn’t around during much of the second season so things got a little off the rails storytelling-wise, etc. etc. but fire walk with me allows them to tie difficult, often horrifying threads (ben horne unknowingly attempting to have sex with his daughter, the townspeople’s distancing of albert, the hands of random townspeople trembling as BOB attempts to claw back into the material world, the list goes on and on) back to the central thesis of “sexual violence is the ultimate evil, it is completely avoidable, and you have a responsibility to recognize the signs and stop being complicit”

[sowingseedsandshootinghoops]

Frederick Douglass: Becoming a Promoter of Social Justice

Note on the text: Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David Blight, published in 2018 by Simon and Schuster

 “There is a prophet within us, forever whispering that behind the seen lies the immeasurable unseen”- Frederick Douglass

I really struggled with how I was going to take anything from this incredible biography of this African American icon and make it into a comprehendible blog post that was worthy of its subject matter, and then I stumbled upon the closing lines of this nearly 800 page book: 

the problem of the 21st century is still some agonizingly enduring combination of legacies bleeding forward from slavery and color lines. Freedom in its infinite meanings remains one of humanity’s most universal aspirations. Douglass’ life, and especially his words, may forever serve as our watch warnings in our unending search for that beautiful, needful, thing (764).   

History has a lot to teach us, if we care to listen. To that end, I have decided to look back at the life of Frederick Douglass and see what we can learn from his life that would apply to the present times. Before going on, let me state the obvious: Nothing that is happening right now is as terrible as slavery. Slavery is easily the worst sin that America, and the world, has ever committed, so any comparison between slavery and any modern practices necessarily fall short because nothing compares to slavery. 

“Perhaps there is to much past. But remember that all the present rests on all the past” (679). Men have been fighting for “truth, justice, and the American way” since time immemorial. Men have been fighting for justice for a long time, even as the definition of justice has changed over time. That is one of the reasons why it is worth looking back at the past to see how men like Frederick Douglass fought against the injustices of their time. Because often times even if their problems are not our problems, their actions lead to solutions which we benefit from. Their fight led to our world. Therefore it would be good to understand what tactics they used to fight their fights so that we could learn how to use them, when appropriate, to fight for justice in our times. 

Evil is omnipresent in the world. It is everywhere. It’s in our institutions, in our relationships with one another, in our actions, and even, to some extent, in our hearts. Everyone knows the story about the old man who is trying to explain the presence of evil to his young son. The man tells his son that in the heart of every person are two wolves, one good and one bad, who are constantly fighting over that person. “But which one will win?” the boy asks. “The one you feed” the man replies. What the old man is trying to say is that the power of evil is fueled by man. We create it through our thoughts, words, and actions. Slavery persisted for so long  because we allowed it to: “But what man has made, man can unmake” (16). Man is at least a co creator of most of the evils that exist in the world. But the fact that he has a hand in their creation means that he also can have a hand in their destruction. Slavery was an institution that lasted for hundreds of thousands of years and affected millions of live, and yet it ceased to exist once enough human beings had gathered together with enough strength and will to stomp it out. The same thing can still be said for any systemic evil that exists today: it can live only so long as people tolerate its existence. The moment humanity as a whole stops doing that, that practice will cease to exist. It is possible therefore to do things like upend the racial inequality that plagues our society, or change the culture from a “rape culture” to one that is more accepting of women  and one that embraces a healthier view of sexuality. But it took hundreds of thousands of years to eradicate slavery, and may take hundreds of thousands more to eradicate the problems which we are dealing with today.

The problem is that evil, especially certain systemic types of evil, have woven their way into the fabric of our lives and become, in some sense, one with us. Either the evil becomes very hard to see, or is seen as “necessary”. Those systemic evils become so interwoven with the society in which they exist that one cannot even attempt to eradicate that evil without attacking the society itself. I think of all the people during slave times who supported slavery. Many of them probably thought that necessary for the economy that slavery persist, or that it was for the good of both blacks and whites than African Americans remain subservient to their white counterparts. They probably thought that slave masters were good people overall who treated their slaves well, with few exceptions. They might admit that there were a few “bad apples” who treated their slaves badly, but would have insisted that most did not. They would probably even argue that the few slave owners who did were forced to do by the acts of disobedient slaves, and that if they had just been “good slaves” then the master would not have had to treat them that way. It is similar in a lot of ways to conversations around police brutality. Again nothing is as bad as slavery, but there are a lot of similarly styled arguments to the one I just imagined: “We need the police to be as tough as they are in order to protect us, and if only George Floyd had not acted the way that he did, then he would not have provoked the police to act the way that they did. It’s too bad that he died, but it’s because of police brutality”. We need to end policy brutality just as assuredly as we needed to end slavery (although again slavery is much worse), but we appear to not know exactly how to do this. Police on the whole are good people I believe, who have a hard job, and are in no way equivalent to slaveholders, but police brutality remains a huge problem that we need to solve. These problems run deep and deeply intertwined with our identity as a people which makes it hard for us to know how to get rid of them. 

All this is to say that in order to attack these systemic evils, you often times have to attack the system as a whole.  Ask anyone in the oncology field and they will tell you that it’s impossible to get rid of your cancer without "attacking” the rest of your body with chemotherapy and radiation. Yet if you want to get rid of your cancer, that is exactly what you have to do. In a speech from the 1880s Frederick Douglass encouraged people to keep protesting against the lynchings of black men and women by reminding them that “they had not been ‘emancipated by moral convictions’ but in the ‘tempest and whirlwind of civil rebellion” (867). In fact, Frederick Douglass later in his life admitted that at the start of the Civil War he felt happy “at the prospect of conflict between [the] North and [the] South. . . . I was ready for any political upheaval which would bring about a change in the existing condition of things” (264). Again in a speech given in 1857 he reminded all would be reformers that 

if there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom [or any other civil liberty] and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground, they want rain without the thunder and lightening. This struggle may be a moral struggle, or it may be a physical struggle, [or] it may be both moral and physical but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will (285-286).  

If you want to change the system in a monumental way, then you must be willing to fight the system for that change. 

Now I’m not promoting a second Civil War, but it is worth noting that protests upset the system in much the same way as Frederick prescribed. The protests that happened around police brutality for example challenged the way that we as Americans live by forcing us to talk about, and act on, things that we would not have otherwise. How many people started becoming aware of the problem of police brutality because Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the National Anthem or because of the murder of George Floyd? People have become less and less afraid of agitating the public at large and are willing to go to war, metaphorically speaking, to achieve their goals. Again these are evils that have invaded our very system of living which means that in order to eradicate them we have to attack that very same system.  

Now, how does one get one group of people to stop mistreating another group? By getting the people in both groups, but specifically those in the more privileged group, to see each other as human beings. When one group of people is able to acknowledge the humanity in another group of people, it becomes harder for the people in that former group to habitually abuse and mistreated those who belong in the latter. Frederick Douglass experienced this himself first hand through the wife of his slave master, Sophia Auld, who was the one who taught him how to read, because 

however hard she tried, it was all but impossible for her to see the black eleven and twelve year old as any mere chattel. ‘I was more than that’ he asserted, ‘and she felt me to be more than that. I could talk and sing; I could laugh and weep; I could reason and remember; I could love and hate. I was human, and she, dear lady knew and felt me to be so (41).

Years later, while traveling through Ireland, Frederick felt compelled to expose that evil that he saw there because he was “a man and as such [was] bound to use [his] powers for the welfare of the whole human brotherhood” and insisted that he would not travel “through this land with [his] eyes shut, ears stopped or heart steeled” (152). So because Sophia recognized Frederick’s humanity she was not able to treat him in exactly the same way that others in her position did, and similarly Frederick was not able to stand by and simply let the Irish be mistreated because he knew that they were part of the same “human brotherhood” as he was. 

You see a similar concept being played out now- people are constantly trying to get members of the society at large to recognize the humanity of the people who are being mistreated. That’s how a lot of these movements grew to the size that they are now. Let me give a quick personal example. I was talking a friend, a fellow white male, about the protests against police brutality that, at the time, were underway. My friend told me that he thought that people were overreacting. He thought that people’s reaction to the police was extreme, and that he could not understand why the people of those communities mistrusted the police so much and why they were treating the police that way. I then asked if he could, even if he thought their reaction was extreme, to just think about how afraid those people who have to be, even if their fear was overblown, to react to the police in that way, and think about what must have happened to them and their loved ones to make them so scared of the police. He took a deep breath and after a few minutes said “You know what? I never thought of it that way before”. Until that moment, he had never thought of them as people who needed his sympathy. That they were people like him who were scared of the police because of something scary and traumatic that had happened to them in the past. Once he did, once he saw them for the humans they were, he couldn’t go on treating them the same way that he had before. 

Art also plays a big role in the development of cultural consciousness. People do things like erect monuments to commemorate special events, and write stories that immortalize and deify their heroes while demonizing their enemies. When the Emancipation Monument was erected in Washington D.C. in 1876 Frederick Douglass knew that this monument was a statement “about the place of black people in America” (4). It was important for two reasons, the first of which was that it memorialized the story of emancipation and helped ensure that it would never be forgotten. The second is that “black people had never before been represented on a national monument” (4). So the image of a black person rising up to his feet would send a message to people across the country that black men and women had the power to make their own way and “stand on their own two feet” as well as anyone else could. 

Another thing which art does for movements is create figures who somehow symbolize their cause. This is what the military did in their WWII propaganda videos, which made Hitler a symbol of evil (which he was) to encourage people to enlist during WWII. Civil Rights leaders in the 60s likewise made Martin Luther King Jr into a symbol for their movement. Frederick Douglass recognized both the need for the abolitionists to have a symbol for their movement, and recognized how he could become a symbol not just for their movement but for various civil rights movements throughout time: 

He hoped to make his own life into a kind of monument, an edifice so strong that no surge of racism, no lynch mob, no conservative Supreme Court decision, no Lost Cause romance, nor even the ravages of time could tear it down. [His memoir] Life and Times is a memoir as a living museum designed to repudiate the unpredictable fates of America’s racial history. Whatever form white supremacy might take, Douglass wanted to be there for us gaze at, his story as bold refutation” (620).  

He wanted to make himself and his story into a symbol for the fight for equality. He wanted his story to be a reminder to people not only of what came before, but of the fact that there is no ceiling to what an man, especially an African American man, can achieve

We see this starting to happens a lot in modern times too. In New Orleans for example there are plantations that have been preserved and stand as an everlasting reminder of our racist history, as does the National Museum of African American History and Culture which was established in Washington D.C. in 2003. These monuments are there to remind us about where we came from so we might neither forget nor repeat the mistakes of the past. We also see now how the figures of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have been immortalized and have become symbols of the modern civil rights movement, and how those symbols have been used to recruit people to join the crusade for justice. 

Looking back at the life of Frederick Douglass, one can see a lot of similarities to the modern age. A lot of the stuff he was fighting for then remains relevant now. Looking back at how people like Frederick Douglass confronted the issues of their day can help give us some insight on how to deal with the issues of ours. Because it is possible to defeat evil, we can choose which of the two wolves we feed. That’s what it means to be human. 

[westletter]

January 2020

Dear Friends, This mysterious poster has been appearing on lampposts in downtown Kingston since last fall.  It has prompted a rather personal examination of fake news.  Read the fine print under the photo and note that the scientist on the right is The West Letter editor’s father, Allen (Al) West.  He died at age 86 in 1996.   Bitten is the title of a book that appeared last year.  Written by a science writer in California, Kris Newby, it argues with great conviction that the scourge of tick-borne Lyme disease can be traced to US biological weapons research “gone wrong” post World War II.  The author, a recovered Lyme disease patient herself, builds a case that experimental work at Plum Island NY, led to the pathogen “escaping” into the deer population in Connecticut in the ‘70s, and from there to humans.   In plain English, Bitten is a conspiracy theory, that commits the classic error of equating correlation with causation.  Newby conveniently skirts the ample evidence that Lyme disease has been with us at least since the 1890s, and possibly for centuries, preferring to make a case out of two coincident but unrelated facts: one, US military tick-borne disease research in progress on Plum Island NY post WW II; and two, the first identification of Lyme disease in Old Lyme (from whence the name), Connecticut in 1977.  The “ah hah” factor, if you are inclined to the conspiracy, is that Plum Island is but a short hop, as the crow flies, from Connecticut.  

The amateur poster maker too has indulged -- egregiously so -- in the same lack of critical thinking.  Looking at the poster, you might assume that Al West and Queen’s University “in Ontario” were central to the conspiracy theory story.  You would be wrong.  The cover of the book does not feature this photograph.  Nor in the entire text of Bitten is there any reference to Al West or Queen’s University, other than in the photo and caption.  The main character from beginning to end of Bitten is the man on left, Willy Burgdorfer, the discoverer of the bacterium that causes Lyme Disease.  The purpose of the photo was to help bring him to life for the reader.  The guys in the lab coats to his left were completely unrelated to the conspiracy tale.   

I’m guessing that the poster maker is a Lyme disease sufferer in Kingston who buys the conspiracy angle of Bitten.  He or she has seized on the three amigos in lab coats photo, and its caption, as “evidence” (guilt by association) that Al West and Queen’s University must have had a hand, along with Burgdorfer, in releasing the plague of Lyme disease upon humans.  Sic transit the compounding of fake news.                                              §     

FAKE INVESTING NEWS Beware the market soothsayers Canadian economist David Rosenberg is a genuine heavy hitter.  After years opining and advising on Wall Street he returned to Canada to do the same for the Toronto-based money manager Gluskin Sheff.  Rosenberg’s “Breakfast with Dave” subscription service has a devoted following, as do his frequent interviews and articles in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the Globe and Mail and the Financial Post.  

Last November Rosenberg left Gluskin Sheff to hang out his own shingle.  The name may be changing, but the schtick has not and will not.  Rosenberg is best known as a “perma-bear”, someone who almost always forecasts bad news ahead in the markets.  Famously, while Chief Economist at Merrill Lynch, he correctly called the impending real estate crash in the US before the Great Recession in 2008.  That made his reputation.  Unfortunately, with rare exceptions, he has been calling for more bad news ever since.   Rosenberg is one of those economists of whom it can fairly be said: “He called 39 of the last 9 recessions.”  Put another way, even a broken clock is right twice every 24 hours.   Beware the market soothsayers.  If you listened to the naysayers a year ago (including Rosenberg), you missed out on the best market performance in the past decade.  In investing it pays to stick to the knowable: is this stock over or under priced; are the board and management demonstrably competent and on the shareholders’ side; can the balance sheet withstand the inevitable storms?  The rest is guessing, which has no place in long term successful investing.                                            §     

THEME FOR A NEW DECADE Hop on board the shortage in rental housing! To quote from an editorial in the January 3rd edition of Globe and Mail:

“Canada has recently been the fastest growing country in the Group of Seven, with a population rising at double the pace of the United States and United Kingdom, and four times that of France and Germany. According to Statistics Canada projections, our country could have 48.8 million people by 2050.  And that’s the agency’s medium growth projection; under a high-growth scenario,there could soon be 56 million Canadians.   Nearly all of these future residents are going to live in this country’s handful of big cities.  That means millions of new urban dwellers ....”   At a recent baby boomers dinner party, the talk turned to empty nesters making steps to downsize.  The hosts, it turned out, were preparing to put their house on the market, and had been apartment hunting.  However, they were discouraged.  “How long do you think the waiting lists are to get into a good building in Kingston?” they asked.   

No one knew.  They answered their own question: “Two hundred.  Three hundred.  Even five freaking hundred!!!”  Of course that’s just anecdotal.  But the Stats Can projections bear out the argument.  In large part due to immigration policy, but also taking natural increase into account, there is a widely acknowledged shortage in rental housing stock in Canada’s cities.  This bodes well for the the cash flows and growth rates of well-run operators like Minto Apartment Real Estate Income Trust (REIT) of Ottawa.  The founding Greenberg family is still running the business and they are best of breed, as is their portfolio of properties. 

                                            §

CLASS OF 2020 FIRST TERM REPORT CARD Solid start, Info Tech shines   At the half-way mark in the 2020 academic year (July 1st to December 31st, 2019) the Class was up a respectable 7.3% vs. 4.2% for the TSX; 9.5% for the S&P 500; and 7.3% for the Dow.   For the calendar year (January 1st to December 31st, 2019) the Class advanced a sparkling 22.1% vs. 19.1% for the TSX; 28.9% for the S&P 500; and 22.3% for the Dow.   The Headmaster is reasonably pleased and offers the following first-term commentary:  “We dodged a bullet in the energy sector with Enbridge making a nice recovery -- there should be more to come -- and the addition of Algonquin’s green energy portfolio to the Class.  The pair were up 12.4%.” “Our Info Tech players -- Apple, Microsoft, Visa and Open Text -- once again led the pack with a sterling average return of 20%.  Are they expensive?  Arguably, yes.  Could their run have exhausted itself?  Quite possibly, in the short term.  Am I considering replacing these Class leaders with new prospects?  Absolutely not.” “Financials, represented by BlackRock, RBC, ScotiaBank and TD, held their ground, eking out a 1.4% average return.  On the plus side, their valuations are quite attractive, a quality that is increasingly difficult to find in many parts of the market.  That bodes well for future gains.  As noted previously, BlackRock’s co-founder and CEO Larry Fink is an impressive guy, quite visionary and worth keeping an eye on.  In his just published annual letter he is committing to exiting positions in environmentally unsustainable businesses.  He is encouraging others to do the same.  Coming from the head of the largest asset manager in the world ($7 trillion USD), that’s a meaningful nudge.”   “Retail Class veterans Metro and Alimentation Couche Tard clocked a respectable 4.5%. While fully priced for now, they continue to benefit from wise acquisitions.  There will be more to come.  In particular, I’m following Couche Tard’s mating dance with Caltex, a fuel distributor and convenience store chain in Australia.  If the deal goes through, it will be the largest in Couche Tard’s history and transformational for the company.  If not, another deal will come along.  Couche are patient buyers.”    “Global fertilizers champ Nutrien was beaten up somewhat this past term, dragging the return for Resources down 11.2%.  By comparison with key competitors like Mosaic, however, Nutrien is smelling like a rose, given the weak market conditions.  All the while, wisely managed Nutrien continues to throw off cash and use it to buy back shares and pay a growing, nicely yielding dividend. With some cooperation in potash and nitrogen prices, I can see this Class member in positive territory by the end of the school year.” “Brookfield Infrastructure pulled up the Class average with a tidy 15.5% Infrastructure gain.  What did the market like?  Among other things, canny purchases of cell phone towers and a gas pipeline network in India.  And data centres.  This classmate is a master at recycling capital to deliver shareholder value.  Translation: selling high; buying low.” “CNR, John Deere and CCL held the fort, almost, for Industrials, with an average return of - 4.1%.  Each had to contend with headwinds of one form or another.  For CNR, there was the strike; for Deere, the fallout from the US/China trade war in agriculture; for packager CCL, global trade would be a factor, but I also have nagging concerns about purely operational factors.  More recent acquisitions have been slow to bear fruit.  Let’s hope some of these issues will be resolved by next June.” “Healthcare desk-mates Amgen and Johnson & Johnson didn’t break a sweat over the past six months, registering an average gain of 17.8%.  Do not be deterred by the multitude of talcum powder and opioid litigations J&J is facing.  These are par for the course in the pharma world, and are already fully reflected in J&J’s still below par share price.  Keep your eye on the business fundamentals.  They are doing just fine.” “Telus, our lone but dependable Class member in Telecom, logged a 3.8% gain.  Factor in the dividend yielding 4.6% and what’s not to like?” “Disney waves the Class flag for Entertainment, and what a flap it has created with the keenly awaited launch of its streaming service Disney +.  Since its September debut, subscriptions have breached the 50 million mark and show no signs of slowing down (Netflix watch out).  It’s enough to make a Headmaster proud.  The stock is up an underwhelming 3.6% for the term.  But put that in perspective: over the past 12 months, the House of Mouse has had a run-up of 31.9%.  As is so often the case, the market anticipated the good news.  Fear not; there should be more to come in the months and years ahead.” If you would like further information on any of the investing ideas raised in this issue, or a complimentary consultation, please call or email. CW

[bnrobertson1]

“It made our trials seem smaller” BRMR #15: The Straight Story

You can’t throw an internet rock without hitting an article about the greatness of 1999 film. And with good reason. Between the emergence of new talent (Spike Jonze) to the ascension of some of our most lauded artists (P. T. Anderson, David O. Russell), the year was filled with great filmmakers making great fiction. And that statement wouldn’t even reflect my personal favorite film of the year, American Movie. Those who whined there was nothing good at the multiplexes- and there’s always more-than-enough of those bags o’ fun around- look like unimaginative Philistines in retrospect.  

And then there was The Straight Story.

Until very recently (August 2019ish?), I could have sworn to you I had never even heard of the existence of this movie. Which… well, whatever, hundreds of thousands titles wear that definition comfortably. But none of them were directed by Mr. Eraserhead himself, David Lynch, as The Straight Story was*.

[Like 99% of the internet, I’m a big David Lynch fan. One that wrote extensively about him a decade ago, and whose interest has only intensified and enriched in the days since. I would argue there are few artists are responsible for American art’s evolution as Mr. Lynch, but that is a for another piece. Just know I like David Lynch for most of the same reasons others do.]    

Between the masterpieces about the female orgasm, the genre-smashing television series, and the reclamation-in-the-name-of-cool of PBR, few artists define “weird” as acutely as David Lynch. His name is so closely associated with the grotesque yet alluring that it has literally become a synonym for it. And while I’m not watching-blu-rays-backwards obsessive about the director, I am a big enough fan to at least know his strange-stuffed filmography by heart.

Or so I thought until I read about the existence of The Straight Story, barely mentioned as a lesser-film in one of the bigger 1999 retrospectives. Even though it was made in between Lost Highway* and the aforementioned Mulholland Drive, The Straight Story does not fit into the “David Lynch is the weirdest dude on the planet” narrative. At all. Whatsoever. And that’s the exact reason self-described film-geeks like your’s truly don’t know it- and the exact reason why we should.

*My pick for the film that best captures Lynch’s philosophical dance with the bizarre  

The Straight Story features very few Lynchian qualities. There is virtually no violence, no perverse close-ups of bloody, loose limbs, and no suddenly naked, screaming femme fatales. It doesn’t even feature a curse word. It’s literally G-rated, which is the first thing that makes you think this must be some other David Lynch. This must be a case where you’re mixing up one Paul Anderson with Paul Anderson.

Alas, nope. It’s the same David Lynch. So, prelude over, how is Chief Cole’s G-rated foray into sentimental Americana for mass-consumption?

As profoundly gorgeous as any film in recent memory.

How, exactly, did this happen? How did Lovecraft’s metaphorical son produce one of the most genuinely warm and moving films I’ve ever seen? By staying true to himself, of course. While The Straight Story’s story, a based-on-truth tale of an aging man driving a riding lawn mower to visit his ailing brother, is about as far as narratively possible from the intentionally convoluted works with which Lynch is most oft identified, watching the film it becomes obvious that it is still the same director. The lushness of detail where art, and life, really come to life is unmistakably DL. No, there is no 60s icon sucking on a mysterious gas; there is, however, a deer-loving woman who constantly finds herself hitting them with her car on her way to work. While there are no focused-upon phones or boxes that represent chaos, there are a pair of hot pink gloves at a greasy spoon prominently displayed at a turning point. Instead of beer being discussed, a “grabber” is. There is no starlet’s naked body filling its frames with detached beauty, just the grace of some of the best crop-porn the Midwest has ever produced. The lead performance* doesn’t give pause because of its nuanced complexity- it gives pause because of its deeply-rooted earnestness. While it is purposefully lacking in the detached irony of many of Lynch’s most celebrated works, it more than compensates with knotless empathy of rare fidelity.              

*Richard Farnsworth, who was nominated for Best Actor, would lose to Kevin Spacey and his performance in American Beauty, a candidate to take Film that Has Aged Worst in the Last 20 Yearsaway from Revenge of the Nerds

To close, I wanted to discuss a question that has been mentally looming since my misty eyes found the “Eject” button as the end credits rolled: would I have liked this film nearly as much as I did were it not directed by The One David Lynch, aka MR. BELOVED* AMERICAN AUTEUR? The short answer is “no,” but not for the reasons you might presume. At 36, I’m confidence enough in my tastes to like a piece of art that is not made by some universally-lauded artiste. I think I would have liked The Straight Story quite a bit for its meditative and kind qualities. For the way it looks at the goodness of the human race, and life itself. For its frame-worthy cinematography and great leading performance. For the way it methodically builds to its ending, one of the most soulful I can remember seeing on celluloid. Ironically, I could see me thinking some of the stranger details, such as some of the turns of phrase or the entirety of Sissy Spacek’s character, coming across like a film school imitation of the Lynchian aesthetic, implying some sort of warped commentary about the America we see versus what it really is (whatever the hell that may mean). But it wasn’t some star-gazing film student who made this film- it is the OG himself, the one with the filmography of dark, beautiful delights. And it is the images of darkness that Lynch has conjured that makes the light he brings simultaneously stunning and moving (somehow). Lynch typically rhapsodizes about America and the nature of existence in his films- The Straight Story is no different with a point no less substantial, except instead of commanding the alienating to make his point, he utilizes the inviting. The really odd thing is that this sweetly-natured side of Lynch has never really been hidden. It has been in the interviews** he gives, the passion he talks about transcendental meditation, even the character he plays from Twin Peaks. Sure, they’re weird, but they have a genuine, boyish enthusiasm for life that is impressionable in the best ways imaginable. Art is not in a vacuum and it’s impossible to act like it is and that should also apply to evaluation. What The Straight Story lacks in its creator’s typical irony and complexity it more than makes up for with a surprising light of endless warmth and beauty*. Break out your grabber and pick up a copy. Not only is it itself a masterpiece, it makes all of its master’s works shine even brighter. Grade: A+***

*For the minute, at least

**You’ve never seen a man say GEE GOLLY! and similar 50s sentiments so genuinely and lively.

***My inspiration for this piece was born out of a quote from the film. While discussing his estranged brother with a hospitable stranger, Alvin talks about how the two of them would stare at the stars together in the cold and comfort one another. “It made our trials seem smaller.” I couldn’t figure out a way to weave this into this piece, but I feel an obligation to point out my awe of that sentence’s structure and sentiment. About as beautiful as it gets. Maybe I can sneak it in the title somehow…    

[tinymixtapes]

Feature: Why We Hate James Hurley

“It really is awful when someone rattles off a poem without any proper feeling.” – Sei Shonagon We do hate James, don’t we? Any cursory internet search will bring you to tweets and tags and posts about why, and how, we hate James Hurley. The reasons are as broad as one interdimensional television world would allow. The reasons are as narrow as his “boring, stupid face,” to quote my wife. The reasons span the un/critical, endlessly meme-able distance between. But the point is clear: we hate James. Maybe you do not, but, culturally speaking, we do. We dread his complete disregard for presence, his fake guitar playing, his ridiculous crush-hopping, and his boring subplots. While there are certainly more unlikable characters on Twin Peaks, they commit neither the sin of having too much screen time nor the sin of squandering what time they have. At each moment, a world of trauma and mourning swirls around James, but his dumb gaze stares through it all: to women, to his bike, to the world beyond the lodges. Riding away, his back remains turned to the deepest depths he could ever face — in himself, and in Twin Peaks. All the while, we’re stuck listening to him pick and strum indecisively. We’re stuck watching him ride into the sunset while all hell breaks loose. Outlined below are four interrelated reasons why I believe we hate James Hurley. You may ask, “We who?” But if you’re reading this, “we” includes “you.” You may wonder, after the fact, “but this isn’t all about you.” That’s an interesting thought. Please leave disagreements and countertheories in the comments thread after the postlude. I’m eager to engage. --- 01. James is Boring “I’m only quiet on the outside.” Philosophers are often bored, so it’s unsurprising that Heidegger (a bore above most) would dedicate a long lecture to the question of boredom. At the train station, about the empty passage of time, Heidegger asks: “What are we really passing here?” In short, boredom is that fundamental experience that draws us toward our finitude in relation to Time. We wait for the train and, in waiting, discover ourselves; our selves, of course, do not outlast our boredom. Perhaps Heidegger’s greatest cultural critique was his understanding of our need to make ourselves disappear into a language that, by virtue of its apparent stability (and abundance), consoles. So long as we don’t press the foundations of the language any further, we’re good. We pass time, and time passes us for the time being. Still, we wait, and die. In front of screens, we wait, and die. We watch and wait. If we’re lucky, we become enraptured in the midst of the passage of time. However, with television, we are rarely that lucky. Following the early climax of Twin Peaks’s second season, we especially find that we’ve run out of such luck as new, yet hackneyed, narratives are thrown into the mix. The greatest offender, if perhaps because it’s the longest, concerns James and his new quasi-lover Evelyn. In this narrative, we wait at the end of the station, paradoxically, for the train wreck to pass. This is where we begin and end our theory of why James is such a bore. James is boring not only because we wait with him while he is waiting to make a move (or not), endlessly. We wait for it all to end, endlessly. This dual waiting could, with great sophistication, become a means of understanding James as one who waits. It could even become a means of understanding ourselves in relation to boring television. But it becomes, through the actual narrative, a diversion from our encounter with the deeper mystery of the series and a largely artless distraction. It is an amalgamation of wasted time, in which our least favorite character fails to act, and we fail to skip forward (believing, stupidly, in some notion of foundational coherency). In the end, of course, we find that James was being used: to wait, while something more important was happening all along. It’s difficult not to feel similarly. Resentment, sadly, will sit at the station, and pass the time. --- 02. James is a Reminder “I changed my mind. I’m not sorry.” Reminders are invitations. Throughout Twin Peaks, David Lynch is calling us to the background. Inadvertently, it’s there that we first found BOB. It’s through backgrounds that we learn who or what know what or who. Owls, logs, lights. Even more obviously, however, it’s in the background where the televisions are running, and we’re given an Invitation to Love. In life, it’s believed that people experience varying degrees of freedom. On television, however, characters are developed (and on soap operas, almost never un-developed). It’s increasingly important to make this distinction, as people have a tendency to see themselves as characters and not as people. In life, people are groomed to become characters who act within their lives. People are fated by forces outside of themselves, forces that have the sole purpose of developing certain characteristics. These are, in the end, what we call “reality,” much in the same way in which reality television is understood as “reality.” Coincidentally, we are let down by appearances, our roles, the accidents of our materiality. The logic of television is quite different: characters let us down because we realize things could’ve been otherwise, even with something as simple as a director’s cut. Soaps are notoriously uncut. But it is cuts that bring us to the core of Twin Peaks. With cuts, Laura’s body washed to shore. At dawn, the town of Twin Peaks came to us: first, a meadowlark, then an interstate, then the downtown, then artifacts of a town asleep, the diner, the Great Northern, the sawmill, a kitchen at breakfast. Cut to a woman’s body “face down, lying on the log raft, cut, bruised, broken and lifeless.” The small town is subsumed within her death, and her body becomes the locus of mourning for the small town. It’s a story that we’ve known for 25 years and from time immemorial. It is an originary cut from which we’ve been in mourning ever since. (Who killed Laura Palmer? We anticipate the answer and suspect everyone in the meantime.) We hate James, in the midst of this, because he is a reminder of what else is happening: that is, what is happening on television. If the cut is an opening, the continuity of the closure is that which tries to hide reality — even reality, as in the case of Twin Peaks, at its most metaphysical. It almost goes without saying that James is a character lifted from a soap, as though occupying the empty space of a television’s glow. Insidiously, like a character, he is a reminder of our need to escape from reality, to “aberrate” mourning rather than inaugurate it, in the words of Gillian Rose. He is the barrier we must cross in order for ourselves to descend into the Black Lodge. His melodrama, meanwhile, scuttles in the foreground, cutting us off at every meaningful step for which he is present. --- 03. James is a Cipher “Laura said a lot of nutty stuff.” (Animation: Korey Daunhauer) What does a doppelgänger see when they look through their mirror? The mythology is wont to tell us, and unsurprisingly unconcerned. (It’s a scarier question, a scarier answer. David Lynch is, no doubt, the filmic master of repression.) But everyone, even a double, has their story to tell. Twin Peaks is, above all, a show about dual identities showing themselves in mirrors. Every significant character has its double, and each confrontation becomes a locus, eye to eye, of one terrible revelation: you are not who you think you are. (You are, in fact, who we are… or were.) Who does James see when he looks through his mirror? Like Narcissus, I can’t imagine he even saw that far. He certainly wasn’t written, as a character, to see that deeply. It’s questionable as to whether or not he saw himself. James’s identity is put into play from the beginning, having neither home nor parents nor girlfriend nor personality. He carries his last name like a curse. He’s a void, a mirror, all unto himself. The mirror-play becomes a theater of refraction for Lynch’s ideal teenage masculinity. It becomes a theater for how to play the role as a man, without having the foundations necessary to actually be one. When you can’t be who you are, you dress the part instead — and hope to God no one catches on. In television, as in life, we hate frauds. More profound than our hatred of frauds is the hatred of the de-frauded, themselves, when they know we’ve caught on. They pick up the shattered pieces and hope the bits of reflections will still fool someone — and take quick swipes at those for whom it doesn’t. But how does a mirror hold itself, broken? This is the cipher theory: we hate James because he can’t mirror what, or who, he is supposed to mirror. James Dean can flaunt his pointless rebellion with a glint of sincerity, but in pieces, mourning his mutilated crush while flirting with the next (and the next), all we can see is Hurley’s eyes roaming the room in search of a sight of himself. All the while, his Echoes lie in wait, ready to follow and flee. --- 04. James Left Image: Séamus Gallagher In our lives, we have far too few moments in which to make sense of our most profound losses. In our lives, we rarely have the opportunity to truly descend into the depths of truth. In our lives, we have as many opportunities to run as to stay, and yet. James was keen to crush and quick to leave. Worse yet, James, who connected, if tangentially, deeply with his place, who knew the ins and outs, who knew the superficial secrets, chose to “see the world,” instead. He chose to get on his bike and ride. But what in the world can you see if you don’t even look into the dark corners of your home? Cooper went in. James rode away. He rode beyond the episodes, beyond the finale. Does the ocean have the same appeal when you’re headed nowhere? Cooper came out transmogrified. James disappeared into the station, the glow, the mirror itself. James is a bore, a projection, a vessel. As with everything, or everyone, else that we hate, James is a dumpster into which we can dump our own emptiness. Worse still, James is the emptiness that we’re left with after the fact. We hate James because we can’t bear it, either. --- A Musical Postlude (Without Comment) http://j.mp/2rjm12D

[aion-rsa]

The Best Geek TV Deep Dives on YouTube

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From the heyday of Television Without Pity to niche podcasts that cover every small screen angle you can think of, TV show deep dives have always thrived online, and popular platforms like YouTube and Vimeo provide opportunities for talented creators to add a visual angle that can often make a well-edited analysis of your favorite series even more compelling.

YouTube is positively teeming with potential rabbit holes for TV obsessives to fall down. Sometimes at 3 a.m. Sometimes after a few beers. Sometimes when you should be working (couldn’t be us) but whether you’re drawn in by a near-obligatory shocked reaction thumbnail or you accidentally stumble across an interesting take on something you’re passionate about, there’s usually a rabbit hole waiting that feels like it could have been made just for you.

With any luck, falling down one of those rabbit holes ends with you landing far away from the world of destructive opinions, of which there are many, and not just on YouTube. Most of us have probably seen a clip floating around of someone spouting the most harmful, misinformed nonsense at one time or another, and asked ourselves whether giving that person a platform was really the best idea.

Well, this isn’t that. Instead, we’ve pulled together some weighty YouTube-accessible examples of what happens when someone loves a TV series or franchise so much, they can’t stop talking about it – even decades later. Most of these deep dives are a labor of love, which is not to say that they always have a happy ending.

The Retrospective

Ian Martin, who runs the YouTube channel Passion of the Nerd, says his journey began rather accidentally in his early 30s when he found himself feeling a little lost in life. He admits he tried a variety of ways to rid himself of the sensation, including “too much alcohol,” but after deciding on a career change and fruitlessly looking for ways into the voiceover industry, he decided the best course of action was to go ahead and just …make stuff. After all, this course of action didn’t require anyone else to give him a break, and made him the master of his own destiny.

“I sat down and wrote a script about a show I’d become consumed by and edited it into a video called Why You Should Watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” he wrote. “In that video, I mentioned that Buffy’s first season was a little rough and, for people who just wanted to get into the show, I would create a short little episode guide just to get them through the first season.”

Six years later, Martin is still at it, and his audience has grown into a supportive community that includes over sixty thousand subscribers, propped up by funding from Patreon. Not only is he still covering Joss Whedon’s first series in depth, episode-by-episode, he’s now delving into spin-off show Angel and Firefly.

Martin’s videos don’t pore over every aspect of these shows, and rarely does an instalment hit the 30-minute mark. Rather, they tend to examine the philosophy behind their themes, citing absurdist and existentialist influences. The host himself doesn’t push these ideas on his audience, but if you don’t end up buying a copy of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea by the time you get to the end of Season 3, it may be that you’ve missed out on a pretty essential element of Buffy’s enduring appeal.

“It took me a long time to figure out what Passion of the Nerd was but I started to find its shape through the journey it was taking ME on,” he explained. “On any average day it’s a chance to make someone laugh over our shared interests. But my favorite experience of art is the one in which we find ourselves. That movie, piece of music, performance, or show that makes us feel like its creator opened up our heart to take a picture of its inner depths. And I love talking about why media MATTERS and finding those moments in popular culture. Sometimes I get to distil those moments for other people and when I do, I hope it does for them what the channel has done for me.”

Martin’s coverage of the very first episode of Buffy lies below. If you continue watching his series of videos after that, it’s unlikely you’ll want that time back. They’re incredibly thoughtful and, frankly, an absolute joy.

The Deconstruction

Ah, Twin Peaks. The show that changed television forever, and one that has been hard to forget ever since. You’ve not been able to throw a golden shovel without hitting a Twin Peaks deep dive online in the last three decades, but occasionally one arrives and threatens to pull apart the backbone of its dreamscape for good.

Twin Perfect’s Rosseter turned in a Twin Peaks deep dive last October with a running time not for the faint of heart. His deconstruction of David Lynch’s endlessly puzzling mystery, supported by myriad quotes from its beloved co-creator, is over four-and-a-half hours long, but its length certainly hasn’t put off curious viewers – over a million people have already chosen to hear what Rosseter has to say about the real meaning behind Twin Peaks.

“Garmonbozia, the Black and White Lodges, Mike, Bob and the Little Man, Judy, Audrey and Charlie, Season 3’s ending… The mystery of Twin Peaks has survived for nearly 30 years… until now,” the video promises, which is a tease that even casual fans of the series can’t possibly resist. Their mileage may vary with the host’s loud impression of Lynch throughout the video, however, even as he produces what feels like a fairly accurate interpretation of Twin Peaks’ initial intentions, its ongoing message in the prequel film Fire Walk with Me, and a gut-punching look at 2017’s The Return.

Rosseter starts out by warning his audience that if they haven’t consumed all three Twin Peaks seasons and the film, they should consider stepping back until they have, which stands to reason: he’s about to spoil most of their various twists and turns. But he then goes on to say that die-hard Twin Peaks junkies should also reconsider watching the video, because after they’ve heard him out, they might never be able to look at Twin Peaks the same way again.

For many, the temptation to potentially peek behind the red curtain has been too great to ignore, and the comment section is filled with people who sat through the whole thing, having felt truly changed by the experience.

“David Lynch didn’t even know what this show was about until he saw this video,” someone joked, while another added more solemnly “I just feel regret. I appreciate the show on a whole other level but the haunting magic that it had for me is gone.”

One viewer thought that Rosseter’s comprehensive offering “may legitimately and unironically be one of the most intelligent and well-constructed videos ever put on YouTube,” but others hit the nail on the head when they realised that unwrapping Twin Peaks’ clues over the years had only led to one significant discovery: “we were controlling Twin Peaks the entire time.”

So, what’s at the heart of Rosseter’s theory? You may want to find out for yourself, and he certainly makes an incredibly detailed case for it. In this event, a brief explanation in the next paragraph will be a SPOILER.

While it’s common knowledge that David Lynch didn’t want to reveal who was responsible for killing Twin Peaks’ central victim, Laura Palmer, and that he was forced by TV bigwigs to wrap up the storyline and the investigation into her murder during Season 2 in late 1990, Rosseter posits that the reason we were never supposed to uncover the mystery of who ended her life and get closure on her death is because Lynch fundamentally believes that consumable TV violence is rotting our brains, and that’s why he created the series in the first place.

Still intrigued? Take a look…

The Discussion

Two-time Shorty Award winner Kristen Maldonado launched her YouTube channel in 2014 as a place where pop culture meets community, and she has the kind of drive, ambition and fast turnaround skills that make other creators look like they’re napping on the job, frankly.

While working as a social media manager for MTV, she’s used her YouTube platform to support women, diversity, and LGBTQ+ representation, discussing everything from the acknowledgement of Kat’s identity on The Bold Type, to the highs and lows of TV’s YA-skewed failures, emphasising the importance of why representation matters “on screen, behind the scenes, and critically.”

Along the way, she’s become a notable queen of deep dives, and not just where TV or movies are concerned – at one point she was even documenting her own musical journey on Spotify, where she was keen to bring attention to emerging artists. Discussing TV still feels like Maldonado’s reigning passion, though, and she usually explores her favorite shows in bite-sized segments that add up to a comprehensive look at their subjects.

One show she’s been extremely passionate about is the Charmed reboot, which she was beyond excited to see come to fruition on The CW. The fantasy drama series originally ran for eight seasons between 1998 and 2006, and CBS had tried and failed to reboot it before, but this time The CW intended to get the job done, bringing the story of magic and sisterhood back to TV and hoping to entice both fans of the old series and a new, younger audience.

The reboot was initially touted across industry trades as a project that would star three Latinx actresses, and that casting choice meant a lot to Maldonado. When news later emerged that only one of the new Charmed sisters would be played by a Latina actress, she posted a video addressing her feelings of confusion about how the show was originally announced, her disappointment that the roles wouldn’t be filled by three Latinx performers, and why series creators need to start using valuable representation opportunities properly.

Maldonado has covered the Charmed reboot comprehensively since it began in 2018, and this year has moved into livestreaming her reviews, switching from shorter videos to longer discussions about the episodes. If you’re a fan of Charmed, or any of the other series she covers (and there are quite a few) you might well find her channel to be an insightful addition to your subscription list.

The Takedown

Chances are, a TV show has pissed you off or upset you before. That Game of Thrones ending? Probably. Bobby Ewing stepping out of the shower? Sure. Quantum Leap? We’re not over it. Only a few of us take the time to make a video detailing just how upset we are about a show and upload it to YouTube, though.

Mike Stoklasa is likely to be a pretty familiar face to some of the Very Online movie and TV addicts reading these words. He’s the founder of production company RedLetterMedia, through which he’s been creating content and offering his desert-dry opinion on various facets of pop culture for well over a decade.

On YouTube, Stoklasa is regularly accompanied by cohorts Jay Bauman and Rich Evans as they take a hard look at some of their favorite films from the past, some of the worst straight-to-video movies of all time, and some of the bigger releases, too. He also voices a character called Mr. Plinkett, and when he does, viewers know that they’re about to peer screaming into the void, because ‘Mr. Plinkett’ does not hold back, especially when it comes to Star Wars or Star Trek.

Stoklasa is one of the most vocal Star Trek fans alive, and is known to consistently derail otherwise unconnected discussions with his Trek references, often explaining how Star Trek may have influenced the subject’s storytelling, and how it might have been – or should have been – a positive lesson from TV past.

To say that he’s not a fan of Star Trek’s fairly recent resurgence under the eye of executive producer Alex Kurtzman is probably an understatement. He covered CBS All-Access’ Star Trek: Discovery, a series that has, for the most part, chosen to abandon Trek’s previous lean towards standalone stories and episodes in favor of season-long arcs, and he seemed interested but trepidatious ahead of Star Trek: Picard’s arrival on the streaming service. But after the show had run its course, he uploaded a 94-minute takedown called ‘Mr. Plinkett’s Star Trek Picard Review’.

The broader world of YouTube takedowns is, objectively, a cesspool – misogyny, racism and homophobia have often run rampant – but Stoklasa has been in the business of keeping more of a constructive balance going for a long time, so when ‘Mr Plinkett’s’ review of Picard appeared online towards the end of May, anyone with even a little backstory on his recent problems with Trek’s TV universe suspected that the fresh adventures of the aging ex-Enterprise captain had finally pushed him over the edge …but they weren’t quite prepared for the ‘Dear John’ letter that ultimately arrived.

Whether you enjoyed Picard or not, Stoklasa makes some constructive points in his video review, and his breakup with the current Star Trek TV world is one for the ages.

The Art of More

If it’s the visual element of a TV show deep dive you’re into, YouTube has plenty to offer.

Art meets skill as Skip Intro takes a fascinating look at the editing behind David E. Kelley’s Big Little Lies, Ladyknightthebrave spends the best part of an hour pondering how Fleabag’s gimmick of breaking the fourth wall serves the show’s characters and story, and balancing ‘point of view’ vs ‘the big picture’ becomes the focus of Lost Thoughts’ It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Island.

Here, Thomas Flight explores how HBO’s award-guzzling Chernobyl became a masterclass in perspective…

We hope you found something worth your time in this piece, and writing it up wasn’t really an excuse to discover more of them, but it also wasn’t NOT an excuse to discover more of them. So, if you’ve found any notable examples to keep us busy, please direct our attention to them in the comments, thank you.

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[cryptodictation]

The 2020 sci-fi highlight will get two films at once: makers reveal the reason

It was quiet for a long time, but now the coming one is taking off DuneAdaptation of Denis Villeneuve more and more shape. The science fiction film is scheduled for release in December. The Vanity Fair presents one first insight into the hustle and bustle around the from Timothée Chalamet embodied Paul Atreides, who becomes an involuntary hero on the desert planet Arrakis.

This is not the first time we have seen this story on the big screen. Beautiful David Lynch tried a film adaptation in 1984. Dune – the desert planet was received very split. There is one point of criticism, especially from the fans of the book, that comes up again and again: The filmic implementation simply does not do justice to the complexity of the literary work.

Dune is too complex for a single movie

The later mini series, Dune (2000) and Children of Dune (2003), also fought with similar criticism and have since been forgotten. Denis Villeneuve does not want to allow this in his ambitious Dune film adaptation and wants to create a new science fiction epic with two films. He explains to Vanity Fair his decision to split Frank Herbert's template into two feature films:

I would not have agreed to adapt this book with just one film. The world is too complex. It is a world whose attraction results from the details.

© Warner Bros.

Dune

Warner Bros. recently celebrated with the two-part novel adaptation It and It chapter 2 great success. However, it is unclear exactly where the cut is to be made at Dune. Due to the different time levels, Stephen King's novel is much easier to split in half. Dune, on the other hand, follows a different dramaturgy.

Dune is Denis Villeneuve's most difficult film project

Warner Bros.'s advance in trust is remarkable in any case: A look at the history of previous Dune films and series is only conditionally associated with financial success. David Lynch's version grossed about $ 30 million on a budget of $ 40 million in the United States, which turned out to be a flop.

Denis Villeneuve also had to face the painful experience that even an excellent science fiction film like Blade Runner 2049 can disappoint at the box office. He now says about Dune that it is “by far the most difficult (project)” that he has mastered in the course of his career – and now he has to repeat everything for part 2.

Screenwriter Jon Spaihts was from the spin-off series Dune: The Sisterhood subtracted to write the script for the sequel. The potential for a franchise with which Warner Bros. can declare war on the competition is definitely dormant. Even more, the division into two films gives hope that Dune will adequately capture Frank Herberst's template in 2020.

New picture of Spider-Man star Zendaya in Dune

Apart from that it gave us Zendaya yesterday a new Dune image that was not included in the Vanity Fair feature and shows the Chani she played.

If the release of Dune due to the corona virus should not be postponed for a short time, then the film awaits us in German cinemas on December 17, 2020.

Do you think Denis Villeneuves Dune can do justice to Frank Herbert's novel?

The post The 2020 sci-fi highlight will get two films at once: makers reveal the reason appeared first on Cryptodictation.

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[marcusssanderson]

10 Best Personal Finance Books For Your Money in 2019

Because of their unique position, Investment Advisors often recommend personal finance books.

Their recommendations are always a reflection of themselves because they will emphasize those qualities they consider important. This means any top 10 list has some degree of bias and no list should be identical.

In fact, I doubt the list I prepared today would match the list I would prepare tomorrow. Because developing financial literacy is a time-consuming pursuit, individuals should know where their wealth journey leads before setting course.

Financial literacy and financial planning go hand in hand. A person’s financial plan can be summarized in six words and the progression is to – Get Wealthy, Stay Wealthy, Get Wealthier.

In order to Get Wealthier, one must first Stay Wealthy and in order to Stay Wealthy, one must first Get Wealthy. This means the financial literacy journey, like Dorothy’s in The Wizard of Oz, starts at the beginning with an assessment of one’s current condition.

Next, you set a goal and develop a plan. Then you must execute your plan. This is where the trouble begins. There are dozens of books to help you determine your current condition and help you set goals and develop a plan. Unfortunately, they are mostly ineffective because the single most important ingredient to financial success is the motivation to succeed.

Books on budgeting, saving, credit cards, student loans, banking, insurance, etc. are everywhere. While they are important, they are simply informational, and as information is now a commodity, these types of books don’t make my top 10 list. They once did, but they no longer do. They don’t motivate, and so they don’t cause the reader to take action or execute their plan.

My top 10 personal finance books list must be inspirational and insightful. The following list is the exact order I would begin my wealth journey.

Motivating Personal Finance Books About Taking Control Of Your Money

1)  The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason

A very quick read and the first personal finance book given to me by my father. It is the first book I gave my son to read when he joined my firm eight years ago. I read it as a child, and have read it multiple times throughout my life.

The lessons are enduring and evergreen. The emphasis is on saving a percentage of what you make, investing it wisely, and avoiding debt. It takes you on the journey to financial and personal success. It is simplistic, motivational, and anyone that picks up the book can definitely benefit from it.

2)  Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Another huge personal favorite and according to this book, people get exactly what they want out of life. This applies to happiness, love, career, money, etc. This book focuses on visualizing your outcome.

This is one one of the personal finance books that focuses on the individual’s personal development and attitude towards money. It has a very powerful message and transcends personal finance that can benefit the reader in other aspects of their life.

3)  The Millionaire Next Door by Stanley and Danko

This book starts you on the journey because it lets you see where a successful journey leads. It dispels the notion that millionaires are conspicuous consumers and earn impressive salaries. They may be – but it isn’t the norm.

The book examines how real millionaires look and behave. Your perception of financial success may change after you read this book and how you go about your day-to-day activities might, too.

4) One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch

This is a great book by one of the top investors ever. Mr. Lynch ran the largest mutual fund of his generation and unfortunately retired too early.

The importance of this book is his emphasis on investing in stocks or businesses that you know, can understand, and use their product. It makes investing accessible to individuals and shows them how they can compete with the professionals and in many cases, beat the professionals.

If you have ever had an interest in learning about stocks, this is the book to read.

5) Money: Master the Game by Tony Robbins

We now must move to more traditional personal finance books. The very best one on the market today is Money: Master the Game by Tony Robbins. Mr. Robbins is a motivator and his book might very well lead you to take action. He synthesizes information from top investors and draws a road map to help you succeed. He truly wants you to Master the Money Game and I applaud his effort.

Of the 10 personal finance books on this list, it is the only one I would give less than a 5 star rating. But this is because I take exception with the techniques he describes that may lead the reader to think they can execute them. To be specific, his “All Weather Portfolio” is not something the average investor can implement. However, the book deserves a prominent place in your financial library.

Best Personal Finance Books about Investing

We now move into the category of books about investing. Earlier I said that executing a plan is where the trouble begins. The trouble begins for two reasons. The first is: investors don’t know what type of investment philosophy to follow. Secondly, once they have a philosophy, they unfortunately don’t follow it.

This inability to follow a strategy causes us to buy high and sell low. It is a tendency you must master before you call yourself a successful investor. The very last book on the list is written by a professor that will help you to overcome your behaviorally shortcomings. Knowing about investing and following your plan are two entirely different things.

6) The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

Benjamin Graham taught Warren Buffett how to initially look at money and analyze securities. He is the Godfather of value investing and no personal finance education could be complete without the knowledge he imparts.

7) Market Wizards by Jack Schwager 

This is the first popular book of its kind that shows successful traders and how they think about trading. It also exposes the reader for the first time to technical analysis and trading systems.

Technical analysis and trading systems are well outside the norm for personal finance, but no financial education is complete without an understanding of rules-based investing approaches. After all, you are determining your own set of rules to follow. So see how others follow their rules. It also introduces the importance of discipline and behavior.

8)  Unconventional Success by David Swensen

David Swenson manages the Yale endowment fund, so this is also required reading. It is a bit complicated, but his principles are basic and you can follow them. He provides one of the best blueprints for an individual investor I have ever examined and shows you step-by-step how to construct a portfolio and which asset classes to include.

9) What Investors Really Want by Meir Statman

Mr. Statman is a specialist on people’s behavior and comes up with a number of techniques to help you save and keep you from making the types of irrational financial decisions that prevent you from achieving your goals.

10)  Financial Tales by Carlos Sera

Yes, this is my own book so of course, I’m biased. How is this book different? Imagine a personal finance book with no charts, tables, or graphs. Like The Richest Man in Babylon, Financial Tales is an abstraction. Most financial information comes in the form of realism with the hope that it will lead to understanding.

Unfortunately, there is so much financial realism available, it leads to confusion and an overwhelmed mind. However, if you start simply–if you start from the abstract and create the core–you will slowly bring to life what previously seemed impossible, and realism becomes approachable.

It is a collection of 61 tales, where each tale teaches a lesson based on what real people have done with their money. Some are cautionary tales, some are uplifting, all are evergreen and are quite short. The book explains what motivates investors and their advisors. You will see the world differently after you read this book.

What other personal finance books would you add to the list?

As an added bonus, people looking to increase their investing acumen should read Principles by Ray Dalio. He runs the world’s largest hedge fund and he requires all of his employees to read what he wrote. It is exceptional and if you embrace his Principles you are well on your way to success.

I hope this list helps you on your financial journey, regardless of where you are today. Let these books motivate you to take action and execute your financial plan.

Which of these personal finance books will you read first? Do you have any other books to add to the list? Feel free to give us YOUR favorites and suggestions in the comments section below!

The post 10 Best Personal Finance Books For Your Money in 2019 appeared first on Everyday Power.

[democratsunited-blog]

Push to rename building for McCain is a strange, ironic twist

https://uniteddemocrats.net/?p=9066

Push to rename building for McCain is a strange, ironic twist

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wants to rename the Russell Senate Office Building after the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Yet, in a strange twist of irony, many progressive ideals which serve as touchstones of today’s Democratic Party and the progressive movement may not exist were it not for the building’s namesake, Sen. Richard Russell, D-Ga.

Three Senate office buildings sit across the street from the U.S. Capitol, linked by an underground network of tunnels. The newest is the Hart Senate Office Building, named after Sen. Phil Hart, D-Mich. — the “conscience of the Senate.” Then there’s the Dirksen Senate Office Building, the namesake of longtime Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen, R-Ill. Closest to the Capitol is the Russell Senate Office Building. Russell is the oldest of the trio, opened in 1909.

Thirty-five senators and six committees maintain offices in Russell. The structure holds the suite used by McCain and the Armed Services Committee, which he chaired.

Richard Russell served for 38 years in the Senate. A staunch anti-communist, Russell also led the Armed Services Committee. Russell never served as a Senate majority or minority leader. But there’s a reason for that: Russell didn’t need to. He committed to memory all of the Senate’s rules. He could convince fellow senators to vote for bills they otherwise opposed. The idea of a majority or minority leader was a new concept in the Senate in the early 20th century. The Senate is a body of equals. That’s why Senate Majority Leaders Alben Barkley, D-Ky., Scott Lucas, D-Ill., and Ernest McFarland, D-Ariz., struggled. They held the title. But none radiated the political wattage of Richard Russell.

During his time on Capitol Hill, no one commanded all of the Senate’s folkways, methods and procedures quite like Russell.

And here’s the bad part: Russell was a racist and segregationist. He filibustered civil rights bills. He fought legislation banning public lynchings.

“We believe the system of segregation … is a reason to preserve peace and harmony between the races” said Russell, as quoted in Robert Caro’s book “Master of the Senate.”

Russell’s views on race are why Schumer and other Democrats want to rename the building after McCain.

“It is only fitting that his name should adorn a physical institution of the Senate, particularly one that housed the Armed Services Committee,” said Schumer.

But it’s just not Democrats who want to change the name.

“Having a building named after (McCain) makes a lot of sense to me,” said Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the lone African American Republican in the Senate.

“I’m great with that,” said Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., when asked about Schumer’s proposal. “I loved John McCain. He was a good friend and a mentor. He took me under his wing.”

But not everyone’s on board, including lawmakers from Georgia.

Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., accused Schumer of playing politics.

“McCain just passed away. We need to take a deep breath,” said Perdue.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., wants to name something after McCain for time immemorial.

“I don’t want to establish the precedent that we can un-honor somebody in the future,” said Cassidy.

In other words, if they can strip the name “Richard Russell” off the Russell Senate Office Building, why couldn’t that happen to the “McCain Senate Office Building” in the future?

“I’d name the Capitol after the old guy if I could,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Graham also suggested naming the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) after the Arizona Republican.

“John hated it. He thought it was a waste of money,” said Graham, noting with a chuckle that bestowing the CVC with the McCain moniker might be “my last way to get at him.”

But Graham says a lot of the focus seems misplaced at a time of mourning.

“Instead of worrying about what to name for him – which we should name something or a bunch of things — let’s try to be more like him,” suggested Graham.

The Russell Senate Office Building wasn’t always named after Richard Russell. It was initially just the Senate Office Building – because it was the only one. Some called it the “SOB” for short.

Perhaps that’s a dig at Russell. And, considering the original “SOB” moniker, one McCain friend told Fox that naming the building after McCain would fit the late senator perfectly.

But here’s why Russell was important:

Take a look at the aforementioned “Master of the Senate” by Robert Caro. The 1,100-page magnum opus details how Lyndon Baines Johnson truly became the master of the Senate as no one had really done before him. Remember those other Senate leaders who lacked the chops? Guess who arrived on the scene who did? Lyndon Johnson. Johnson went on to become one of the most-powerful Senate leaders of all-time. The only others who come close are Sens. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., Bob Dole, R-Kan., Howard Baker, R-Tenn., and Mike Mansfield, D-Mont.

For good or ill, when Johnson became president, he successfully advanced his “Great Society” programs through Congress. That included passing landmark civil rights legislation, waging a “war on poverty.” Congress approved legislation creating the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Johnson signed laws on consumer protection and housing. He corralled the votes to create the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and launched public broadcasting.

How did Johnson achieve this? Well, he learned the Senate and developed his bona fides from Richard Russell.

Russell could have moved into a vacant leadership post any time he wanted. But he didn’t want to get bogged down in details. In 1951, Johnson became the Senate Democratic Whip. The sole reason? As Caro writes, Johnson had the backing of “one man,” Richard Russell. Two years later, Johnson became Democratic Leader.

In order to understand Johnson, one must dig deeply into Russell. Caro does so in his tour de force, devoting an entire chapter to the Georgia Democrat: “A Russell of the Russells of Georgia.” It was Russell’s own mastery of the Senate which partly helped President Franklin Delano Roosevelt muscle through his own legislative program during the Great Depression: “The New Deal.”

Russell espoused views on race which are offensive today. But were it not for Richard Russell, and later, his agent Lyndon Johnson, major tenets of the Democratic party’s platform would not be law today.

It’s unclear if Schumer and others will get their way and rename the Russell building after McCain. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is empaneling a bipartisan “gang” to determine the proper way to honor McCain.

“In addition to getting things done, he also wanted to get them through in the regular order,” said Senate Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt, R-Mo., of his fallen colleague. “I’m sure the Senate will find a way to honor him.”

One senior Senate source tells Fox they think the Senate should name something “new” after McCain. That may yet happen.

Democrats will talk a lot of preserving major New Deal and Great Society programs on the campaign trail this fall. Richard Russell doesn’t align with contemporary views on race. But the party and the country would look a little different today if it weren’t for him and his protégé Lyndon Johnson.

Read full story here

[stories-aha-blog]

Some of my top fave stories

The Courtesan of Lucknow

Novel by Mirza Hadi Ruswa, 1905.

Life Story of a Woman who gets abducted a child as an act of revenge, and sold to a brothel, where she moves on to become a famous courtesan, due to her outstanding intellect, personality and taste.

Time of the Gypsies

Film by Emir Kusturica, 1988.

Le Dernier Chant des Malaterre

Graphic Novel by Francois Bourgeon.

The Pillow Boy of the Lady Onogoro

Novel by Alice Fell.

Quote from Goodreads:

“This “exquisite, exuberant, X-rated” novel (Mirabella), set in feudal Japan, tells the story of a concubine who hires a stable boy to whisper erotic stories from behind a screen while she entertains her master, a samurai general.”

Even if the basic premise of this book doesn’t really work, I still love it so much that I had to include it here.

Definitely in the soulfood department.

Dangerous Liaisons

Les Liaisons dangereuses is a French epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, first published in four volumes by Durand Neveu from March 23, 1782.

It is the story of the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, two rivals (and ex-lovers) who use seduction as a weapon to socially control and exploit others, all the while enjoying their cruel games and boasting about their manipulative talents. It has been claimed to depict the decadence of the French aristocracy shortly before the French Revolution, thereby exposing the perversions of the so-called Ancien Régime. However, it has also been described as an amoral story.

As an epistolary novel, the book is composed entirely of letters written by the various characters to each other. In particular, the letters between Valmont and the Marquise drive the plot, with those of their victims and other characters serving as contrasting figures to give the story its depth.

The Wire

TV series, 2002 - 2008, on black street gangs in Baltimore, cross cut with some police procedural of the cops pursuing them.

May be about to reach its shelf life for being too famous to need introduction.

Les Valseuses

Quoted from Wikipedia, since I am too lazy to write up my own description:

Going Places is a 1974 French erotic comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Bertrand Blier, and based on his own novel. Its original title is Les Valseuses, which translates into English as "the waltzers"[citation needed], a vulgar French slang term for "the testicles".[2] It stars Miou-Miou, Gérard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere.

It is widely considered one of the most controversial movies in French cinema history due to its vulgarity, depiction of sexual acts, nudity, and moral ambiguity; however, Blier's later acclaim for the rest of his filmography made it a cult film for modern critics.

Jean-Claude and Pierrot are young men who travel around France, committing petty crimes and running from the law. After they get in trouble with a hairdresser in Valence for stealing his car, they grab his pistol and kidnap his assistant Marie-Ange, an apathetic girl. When they are bored with unorgasmic Marie-Ange, they decide to find a passionate woman and meet Jeanne Pirolle, a woman in her forties who is just released from prison and had spent ten years in a cell. After a threesome, Jeanne commits suicide and the men return to Marie-Ange. They find Jeanne's son Jacques who had been incarcerated as well. Then, the four consider founding a crime family but at their first crime, an attempted robbery, Jacques commits a revenge killing and the others flee. While on the run, they meet a family having a picnic near Col d'Izoard and the delinquent teenage daughter Jacqueline wants to join them. They take Jacqueline and on learning that she is still a virgin, they decide to deflower her. After dropping Jacqueline, the three ride away aimlessly.

Breaking Bad

Too famous to need introduction for the next 10 years or so.

Der Seewolf

One of the classic 4 part adventure series, that would traditionally be broadcast in Germany around Christmas time. First broadcast in 1971, and then literally for decades after that.

Based on a number of different Jack London novels and short stories, that originally had no connection with each other.

Story of a young man from a well off family, who gets shiprecked, and then taken on board by a whaler ship, ruled by a ruthless, self made captain, who refuses to get him to land, and kind of treats him at his whim, sometimes tormenting him, sometimes using him to have conversations with.

Spirited Away

Too famous to need introduction for the next 10 years or so.

Lolita

Too famous to need introduction for the next 100 years or so, but, just in case:

1955 novel by Vladimir Nabokov

Quoted from Wikipedia:

The novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator, a middle-aged literature professor under the pseudonym Humbert Humbert is obsessed with a 12-year-old girl, Dolores Haze, with whom he becomes sexually involved after he becomes her stepfather.

Bad Company

Quoted from Wikipedia, since I am too lazy to write up my own description:

″1972 American Western film directed by Robert Benton, who also co-wrote the film with David Newman. It stars Barry Brown and Jeff Bridges as two of a group of young men who flee the draft during the American Civil War to seek their fortune and freedom on the unforgiving American frontier.[1]

This acid western attempts in many ways to demythologize the American West in its portrayal of young men forced by circumstance and drawn by romanticized accounts to forge new lives for themselves on the wrong side of the law. Their initial eagerness to be outlaws soon abates, however, when the boys are confronted with the realities of preying on others in a nation ravaged by war and exploitation.”

Pinocchio

German language children’s tv series, animated in Japan, first broadcast in 1976, and then contiuously broadcast for many years after, due to its huge popularity.

Based on the original Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, while introducing considerable changes.

For some reason or other, I only ever watched this when I was already in my 20s. Still loved it.

Riget

TV series by Lars von Trier.

Kind of his version of David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks”, if you will.

Set in a hospital, and combining elements of atmospheric eerie / spooky story, comedy, and soap opera.

The Kingdom (Danish title: Riget) is an eight-episode Danish television mini-series, created by Lars von Trier in 1994, and co-directed by Lars von Trier and Morten Arnfred.

The series is set in the neurosurgical ward of Copenhagen's Rigshospitalet, the city and country's main hospital, nicknamed "Riget". "Riget" means "the realm" or "the kingdom", and leads one to think of "dødsriget", the realm of the dead. The show follows a number of characters, both staff and patients, as they encounter bizarre phenomena, both human and supernatural. The show is notable for its wry humor, its muted sepia colour scheme, and the appearance of a chorus of dishwashers with Down Syndrome who discuss in intimate detail the strange occurrences in the hospital.

Cowboy Bebop

Probably too famous to need introduction for the next 10 years or so; but just in case:

1998 Japanese anime television series featuring a production team led by director Shinichirō Watanabe, screenwriter Keiko Nobumoto, character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto, mechanical designer Kimitoshi Yamane, and composer Yoko Kanno. The twenty-six episodes ("sessions") of the series are set in the year 2071, and follow the lives of a bounty hunter crew traveling on their spaceship called Bebop.

Histoire de ma vie

Giacomo Casnova’s Memoirs

Too famous to need introduction for the next 100 years or so.

One of my go to books, when I am seeking distraction. Just arbitrarily opening any of the volumes on any page will almost certainly lead to someting entertaining. Well, most of the time.

Tendres Cousins

Film by David Hamilton

Atmospheric film about those long summer days. The one example that I can think of, where I find the portrait of family life --- well actually more mother and her sister, with the father only visiting once --- enjoyable to watch.

Sort of a “The perfect bourgois childhood” soulfood kind film. (With a fair bit of erotic slapstic thrown in, but oh well.)

Kids

Quoted from Wikipedia:

Kids is a 1995 American independent coming-of-age film written by Harmony Korine and directed by Larry Clark.[4] It stars Chloë Sevigny, Leo Fitzpatrick, Justin Pierce, Rosario Dawson, and Jon Abrahams, all in their film debuts. Kids is centered on a day in the life of a group of teenagers in New York City and their hedonistic behavior towards sex and substance abuse (alcohol and other street drugs) during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the mid-1990s. The film generated a massive controversy upon its release in 1995, and caused much public debate over its artistic merit, even receiving an NC-17 rating from the MPAA

  Some of the comic stories by Hagra, here on tumblr;

“dirty little stories”, betwen gopniki, part time petty criminals and rent boys.

especially this one, this one, this one, this one, this one and this one.

___________________

RUNNERS UP

(= just faves, rather than Topfaves)

Shameless (UK), the first 5 seasons

Vikings (2013 tv series)

Rome

2005 tv series

The series primarily chronicles the lives and deeds of the rich, powerful, and historically significant, but also focuses on the lives, fortunes, families, and acquaintances of two common men: Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, fictionalized versions of a pair of Roman soldiers mentioned in Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico.[1] The fictional Vorenus and Pullo manage to witness and often influence many of the historical events presented in the series, although some license is taken.

The first season depicts Julius Caesar's civil war of 49 BC against the traditionalist conservative faction in the Roman Senate (the Optimates), his rise to dictatorship over Rome, and his fall, spanning the time from the end of his Gallic Wars (52 BC or 701 ab urbe condita) until his assassination on 15 March 44 BC (the infamous Ides of March). Against the backdrop of these cataclysmic events, we also see the early years of the young Octavian, who is destined to become Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome. The second season chronicles the power struggle between Octavian and Mark Antony following Caesar's assassination, spanning the period from Caesar's death in 44 BC to the suicide of Antony and Cleopatra in 30 B.C. after their defeat at the Battle of Actium.

Les Innommables

5 volume graphic novel series by Conrad and Yann

Les Innommables ("The Unnameables") is a Franco-Belgian comic series written by Yann le Pennetier and drawn by Didier Conrad. It began publication in serialized form in 1980 in Spirou magazine and was eventually published in album form by Dargaud.[1]

The series recounts the adventures of three U.S. Army deserters – Mac, Tony and Tim – in 1949, as they trek across Asia and search for Alix, who is Mac's lover and a Chinese communist spy. Les Innommables is characterized by its black humor as well as frequent displays of nudity and violence – which eventually ended the series' run in Spirou.

Les passagers du vent

7 book graphic novel series by Francois Bourgeon

Some of the short stories by Charles Bukowsky

Johnny Mad Dog

2008 French/Liberian war film directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire and based on the novel Johnny Chien Méchant (2002) by the Congolese author Emmanuel Dongala.

The teenage rebel Johnny Mad Dog leads the small group of younger boys commanded by the older General Never Die, who feeds them cocaine.[1] The film follows the group's march towards the capital Monrovia, and follows them in a gritty realistic manner as they move through a series of towns and villages, where they terrify and often execute the population. The soldiers are depicted as almost feral, committing acts of pillage and rape, with scant regard for even their own lives. They wear a variety of outlandish outfits – including butterfly wings and a wedding dress – and have nicknames such as No Good Advice, Captain Dust to Dust, and Chicken Hair.

_____

There are almost certainly quite a few more, that I can’t think of right now. I might update the list, if I should remember a super important one.

(Although there is a limit for how long such a list can be, and still be of use.)

I left out most of the light stuff that I love to watch, and tried to only include stuff that kind of works as inspiration for what I would write about myself.

I enjoy rewatching scenes from The Wire, Rome, The Soparnos and Game of Thrones on youtube, typically many many times over. In the very unlikely case I should ever take part of creating a tv series, it would definitely have to be one that produces scenes that people get addicted to rewatching.

[moviesihaveseenbeforeiamdea-blog]

#598 Fantastic Planet (La Planéte Sauvage)

Source

Released: December 6, 1973

Director: René Laloux

Written by: René Laloux and Roland Topor, based on the Stefan Wul novel  Oms en série

Starring: Jean Valmont, Jennifer Drake, Jean Topart, Gérard Hernandez

Had I Seen it Before? Only in dreams

Deepest regret: A sober viewing experience

I think it’s a misguided effort from the audience to intellectualize movies, and I think it’s a misguided effort from directors to try and communicate an entire theory through what’s inherently a visual medium. That’s not to say that movies should be devoid of ideas---just that sometimes a cigar is more a feeling about a cigar than a symbol for hidden knowledge. 

It’s something I acknowledged in my viewing of Alice, a movie full of loaded imagery and painstaking direction. The temptation to over-analyze is there when something is presented as vividly and as realized as a movie like Fantastic Planet as well.

Pain-staking direction and attention to detail are the bread and butter of animated films, considering that every element of the movie has to be created, the director can take nothing for granted. Even in the most constructed of studio sets for a live-action film, there are the natural laws of physics which dictate what is and isn’t going to be possible in the film. The use of CGI in movies doesn’t violate that principle, since CGI, like traditional animation, comes from a place where every element at some point had to be created: conceptualized, designed, and implemented into the product. 

And Fantastic Planet understands this, René Laloux has created the world in which he is lord and master over, bringing every detail to life independent of its source material, and maintains a strong vision throughout the movie’s brief 80ish minute runtime. 

(Source)

I love to watch movies when I’m stoned, it’s probably my favorite activity to do when I’m high, but there are some drawbacks that come with it. One is that I get very tired, and there’s a fifty-fifty chance that any movie over a standard hour-and-a-half will be outside the realm of possibility. This is mostly due to the fact that I live in a small apartment and watch movies from my bed. The temptation is sometimes unbearable. 

Another drawback is that, while I am able to pay attention to individuals scenes and draw the wildest conclusions, it is almost impossible for me to take a holistic understanding of the plot, and by the next morning after I wake up groggy as all hell, I could not for the life of me articulate what the movie I had just seen was even about. There are a few exceptions to this, some movies that work better high than others, but for the most part, I know what I’m getting into when I smoke beforehand, and it’s the reason I watch almost all of these movies sober, to try and leave me something to be able to talk about when I write these entries up about them. 

That wouldn’t have been necessary with Fantastic Planet, which is a movie that has the most bare bones of plot that serve as a vehicle to take the viewer through impressive landscapes and imaginative creatures. There are the Draags, blue fish-like giants on the Wild Planet, and there are Oms, little humans who are either enslaved as pets for the Draags or exterminated like bugs (Wikipedia informs me that the term is a play on homme, the French word for man---a joke lost in translation). The Oms do their best to eke out an existence under the thoughtless tyranny of the Draags, who step on or gas or crush the Oms without even an inkling of second thought or guilt. That’s it. 

(Source)

But the visuals are intense, and probably the whole point of the movie even for Laloux, and I think this will be a movie I’ll have to go back and getting inebriated for. The whole thing looks like a Maurice Sendak book, and the classic, hand-drawn animated style is antiquated by modern standards but is no less beautiful because of it. I’m no Luddite when it comes to animation---I think there are merits to both the traditional two-dimensional style and 3D computer-generated movies like Zootopia that, for whatever faults it has as a movie, looks incredible. 

But there is a charm in 2D that isn’t replicable by complete 3D-renderings. There are blends of the two approaches that work wonderfully (Disney’s animated short “Paperman”, animated in a style so fluid and unique that it pains me that no full-length feature equivalent has been made), but the extremes of either along the spectrum each bring something to the table, although I do have to admit that my sympathies are more with the 2D styles. 

And part of that is because of what I was referencing earlier with the idea of purposeful construction. Watch a movie like Fantastic Planet and you can feel the mindset of the director seeping out from every frame, there’s a personal element of chance and unconscious reveal in the hand-drawn and painstakingly animated that removes the impersonal variable of programming that comes from computer renderings. 

FilmStruck advertised this movie to me as a Short + Feature program they offer, giving viewers of style primer in a short film that sets up a feature-length film to follow it. In this case, this movie was prefaced by a David Lynch animated short from the ‘60s titled “Six Figures Getting Sick,” which shows the director experimenting with an even more inaccessible style than he is currently known for with an animated short of, well, six animated figures vomiting over and over, accompanied by a piercing alarm that waxes and wanes throughout. It’s dark and ultimately without any broader point, only showcasing the talents of a director who was still trying to find his feet. But it is the perfect accompaniment to a movie like Fantastic Planet, which mirrors its rich visuals and inorganic sound design. 

Both “Six Figures Getting Sick” and Fantastic Planet are more interested in style over substance, and they’re all the better for it. An overdeveloped message would distract what’s strongest in each, that being the aforementioned visual intensity. 

(Source)

If these movies are all pulled from a list which describes “essential” movies, the meaning of essential varies from each to each. Is a movie like Fantastic Planet essential to a well-balanced, thoughtful life? Probably not, even if the movie’s point of tolerance and coexistence is valuable. But then I’m not sure the point of any movie, or any piece of art, is to revolutionize a person’s worldview or to cure any societal ills. That’s what we have politics for. If Fantastic Planet is to be considered an essential movie, it’s because what is essential about a movie is what it can show you, and the inexplicable feelings that it provokes in a way unique to that movie in particular, and within a broader category of sensations that movies can provoke in general. 

Final Thoughts:

The prog-rockish score to this movie was excellent. The sound design, in general, feels purposefully artificial and cold, hostile. 

Apparently, the Communist Czech government routinely tried to interfere with the production of this movie, to the point that Laloux packed it up and moved it to France to complete it. It’s strange to think about a government taking a vested interest in the making of a movie like this, but art does tend to serve as a well-suited means of subversion of politics.

And speaking of Czech animation, apparently, the style of the time in the country’s animated practices dictated that characters in their movies would serve as symbols of a role or a loose idea instead of rounded characters, which is a style painfully adhered to in this movie. The characters are few and unbelievable as full people, but serve their needed function in this movie as well as could be expected.

I believe this is the first animated movie I have watched for this blog. There are depressingly few on the list and even fewer documentaries. My issues with the list grow day by day.  

Recommended: watching this movie again, high as a fucking kite. 

[jm-fraser]

My Favorite Filmmakers (no. 5-1)

5. Martin Scorsese

Scorsese is almost inarguably the greatest living director, this is on top of being one of the most imitated filmmakers of all time, influencing the likes of Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino. During his career Scorsese has directed 24 feature films on top of many great documentaries, transcendent concert films and stylistic shorts, and what makes his career so special is despite his prolific output he never made a bad film, sure some don't reach the heights of masterpiece (Boxcar Bertha and Kundun), but even in his lesser successes there is such a great style and love for the craft, that you can't help just ignore the flaws and feel the love the man has for the form.

Top 3:

Taxi Driver

Goodfellas

The Wolf of Wall Street

4. Stanley Kubrick

This is a filmmaker who is often considered either one of, if not the greatest of all time. He is a well noted perfectionist and intellectual who would spend years on a film before releasing it to the public. Kubrick was lucky in the fact that he managed to maintain complete artistic control over his films, while at the same time receiving funding to make studio films, this resulted in a run of 11 masterpieces from The Killing (1956) to Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and that level of consistency on top of the fact that he made films equal in quality to any other art form, is the reason he is considered as great as he is. For a personal note, The Shining is one of the first films I can remember seeing that made me really fall in love with the artistic side of film, I can't think of a time before that I really noticed the craft and style of filmmaking, so I will always be in debt for that.

Top 3

2001: A Space Oddessy 

The Shining 

Dr. Strangelove

3. David Lynch

Ive already talked a lot about David Lynch in my reviews for all of his films, but Ill say again, there is no one like David Lynch, his vision and style create worlds unlike anything put to film before, and you can tell that everything you see on screen is an unfiltered look into one mans imagination (besides Dune). I guess what makes Lynch so unique is how he was never really influenced from films to the same degree he was from art and music, this gives his films such a different feel to anything else, but this is also on top of being a undisputed master of the craft, mixing to create some near perfect films, which can only be described as pure Lynchian, What makes him so interesting for me is both what his films are about and how they are presented, because he will always push the boundaries of film to make whatever story he is telling as personal and visually interesting as possible.

2. Jean-Luc Godard

I find the French New-Wave the most interesting, and maybe even best, period in the history of cinema, the idea of a group of critics who love Hollywood films, but are bored with the current trends, who then decide to make their own films to breath new life into the art form, and for my account none of the New-Wave filmmakers could stand close to Godard. While his films will always be divisive due to their style and the fact that there is literally nothing else like a Godard film, for me that is what makes his arguably the greatest thing to happen to cinema since Welles. Godard did what always should have been done to cinema, he killed it and tried his best to create it again in his own image, this was in the hopes that others would follow, and while some did, and even surpassed him (Bergman's Persona) his influence never had the reach it should have, he was cinemas greatest rebel and we can only hope someone will learn from his lessons and bring back similar results.

Top 3 

Breathless

Vivre Sa Vie

Contempt

1. Woody Allen

This is 100% without any question a personal choice, but I never described this list as an objective look at the greatest directors of all time, this was always just my ranking of my favorite filmmakers, and subjectively, my favorite is Woody Allen. Ive never had a more personal connection to a directors style than I did the first time I watched Annie Hall, the neurosis, the Jazz, the women, New York, the humor, the intellectualism, the references I didn't understand, and most importantly the way he views himself, which is this perfect combination of ego-stroking and self-loathing, that I have been chasing to reach since the day I saw that great film. The personal impact Woody Allen has had on my life goes beyond just cinema, although that cannot be understated, he was one of the main factors I got into foreign cinema, but also I became a fan of Jazz music because of him, I fell in love with New York City because of him, I changed my style of humor because of him, and I changed the way I look at my self because of him. So all of these reasons and a few more is why I would consider Woody Allen my favorite filmmaker, beside the wonderful films of course.

Top 3

Manhattan

Annie Hall

Crimes and Misdemeanors 

[marcusssanderson]

10 Best Personal Finance Books to Learn about Money

Because of their unique position, Investment Advisors often recommend personal finance books. Their recommendations are always a reflection of themselves because they will emphasize those qualities they consider important. This means any top 10 list has some degree of bias and no list should be identical.

In fact, I doubt the list I prepared today would match the list I would prepare tomorrow. Because developing financial literacy is a time-consuming pursuit, individuals should know where their wealth journey leads before setting course.

Financial literacy and financial planning go hand in hand. A person’s financial plan can be summarized in six words and the progression is to – Get Wealthy, Stay Wealthy, Get Wealthier. In order to Get Wealthier, one must first Stay Wealthy and in order to Stay Wealthy, one must first Get Wealthy. This means the financial literacy journey, like Dorothy’s in The Wizard of Oz, starts at the beginning with an assessment of one’s current condition.

Next, you set a goal and develop a plan. Then you must execute your plan. This is where the trouble begins. There are dozens of books to help you determine your current condition and help you set goals and develop a plan. Unfortunately, they are mostly ineffective because the single most important ingredient to financial success is the motivation to succeed.

Books on budgeting, saving, credit cards, student loans, banking, insurance, etc. are everywhere. While they are important, they are simply informational, and as information is now a commodity, these types of books don’t make my top 10 list. They once did, but they no longer do. They don’t motivate, and so they don’t cause the reader to take action or execute their plan.

My top 10 list must be inspirational and insightful. The following list is the exact order I would begin my wealth journey.

Motivating Personal Finance Books About Taking Control Of Your Money

1)  The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason

A very quick read and the first personal finance book given to me by my father. It is the first book I gave my son to read when he joined my firm eight years ago. I read it as a child, and have read it multiple times throughout my life.

The lessons are enduring and evergreen. The emphasis is on saving a percentage of what you make, investing it wisely, and avoiding debt. It takes you on the journey to financial and personal success. It is simplistic, motivational, and anyone that picks up the book can definitely benefit from it.

  2)  Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Another huge personal favorite and according to this book, people get exactly what they want out of life. This applies to happiness, love, career, money, etc. This book focuses on visualizing your outcome.

This is one one of the personal finance books that focuses on the individual’s personal development and attitude towards money. It has a very powerful message and transcends personal finance that can benefit the reader in other aspects of their life.

  3)  The Millionaire Next Door by Stanley and Danko

This book starts you on the journey because it lets you see where a successful journey leads. It dispels the notion that millionaires are conspicuous consumers and earn impressive salaries. They may be – but it isn’t the norm.

The book examines how real millionaires look and behave. Your perception of financial success may change after you read this book and how you go about your day-to-day activities might, too.

  4) One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch

This is a great book by one of the top investors ever. Mr. Lynch ran the largest mutual fund of his generation and unfortunately retired too early.

The importance of this book is his emphasis on investing in stocks or businesses that you know, can understand, and use their product. It makes investing accessible to individuals and shows them how they can compete with the professionals and in many cases, beat the professionals.

If you have ever had an interest in learning about stocks, this is the book to read.

  5) Money: Master the Game by Tony Robbins

We now must move to more traditional personal finance books. The very best one on the market today is Money: Master the Game by Tony Robbins. Mr. Robbins is a motivator and his book might very well lead you to take action. He synthesizes information from top investors and draws a road map to help you succeed. He truly wants you to Master the Money Game and I applaud his effort.

Of the 10 personal finance books on this list, it is the only one I would give less than a 5 star rating. But this is because I take exception with the techniques he describes that may lead the reader to think they can execute them. To be specific, his “All Weather Portfolio” is not something the average investor can implement. However, the book deserves a prominent place in your financial library.

  Best Personal Finance Books about Investing

We now move into the category of books about investing. Earlier I said that executing a plan is where the trouble begins. The trouble begins for two reasons. The first is: investors don’t know what type of investment philosophy to follow. Secondly, once they have a philosophy, they unfortunately don’t follow it.

This inability to follow a strategy causes us to buy high and sell low. It is a tendency you must master before you call yourself a successful investor. The very last book on the list is written by a professor that will help you to overcome your behaviorally shortcomings. Knowing about investing and following your plan are two entirely different things.

  6) The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

Benjamin Graham taught Warren Buffett how to initially look at money and analyze securities. He is the Godfather of value investing and no personal finance education could be complete without the knowledge he imparts.

  7) Market Wizards by Jack Schwager 

This is the first popular book of its kind that shows successful traders and how they think about trading. It also exposes the reader for the first time to technical analysis and trading systems.

Technical analysis and trading systems are well outside the norm for personal finance, but no financial education is complete without an understanding of rules-based investing approaches. After all, you are determining your own set of rules to follow. So see how others follow their rules. It also introduces the importance of discipline and behavior.

  8)  Unconventional Success by David Swensen

David Swenson manages the Yale endowment fund, so this is also required reading. It is a bit complicated, but his principles are basic and you can follow them. He provides one of the best blueprints for an individual investor I have ever examined and shows you step-by-step how to construct a portfolio and which asset classes to include.

  9) What Investors Really Want by Meir Statman

Mr. Statman is a specialist on people’s behavior and comes up with a number of techniques to help you save and keep you from making the types of irrational financial decisions that prevent you from achieving your goals.

  10)  Financial Tales by Carlos Sera

Yes, this is my own book so of course, I’m biased. How is this book different? Imagine a personal finance book with no charts, tables, or graphs. Like The Richest Man in Babylon, Financial Tales is an abstraction. Most financial information comes in the form of realism with the hope that it will lead to understanding.

Unfortunately, there is so much financial realism available, it leads to confusion and an overwhelmed mind. However, if you start simply–if you start from the abstract and create the core–you will slowly bring to life what previously seemed impossible, and realism becomes approachable.

It is a collection of 61 tales, where each tale teaches a lesson based on what real people have done with their money. Some are cautionary tales, some are uplifting, all are evergreen and are quite short. The book explains what motivates investors and their advisors. You will see the world differently after you read this book.

As an added bonus, people looking to increase their investing acumen should read Principles by Ray Dalio. He runs the world’s largest hedge fund and he requires all of his employees to read what he wrote. It is exceptional and if you embrace his Principles you are well on your way to success.

I hope this list helps you on your financial journey, regardless of where you are today.

What other personal finance books would you add to the list?

Feel free to give us YOUR favorites and suggestions on the comments below!

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