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Thoughts..
1. I'm loving the HBO series, Barry at the moment. The fifth episode of S2 is ...well, I laughed my ass off for a good twenty minutes. The show is about a hitman who is struggling to put his past behind him to become an actor, but his business partners and associates refuse to let him alone. Apparently he was a VERY good hitman. Meanwhile, his acting teacher is attempting to get him to use his experiences (not realizing he's an actual hitman) to act. It's the "method" approach. The series does a great job of poking fun at the absurdity of the acting profession and well, other things.
It's sort of the Kominsky Method by way of the Cohen Brothers...
Barry is asked by the partner of the cop, that he'd murdered, to kill someone. That someone turns out to be an Tae Kwon Do Medalist who is dating the man's wife. He's not so much as asked, as blackmailed into it. What ensues is a comedy of errors of epic proportions. Barry goes, fully covered, to tell the guy -- look I have no intention of killing you -- just hope in a car, drive to Chicago and stay there.
But instead the guy fights him, Barry disables his windpipe, but he keeps fighting him -- "Dude, your windpipe is disabled." Finally the guy keels over. Barry attempts to take off, only to run into the guy's daughter who sees him and runs to find her father -- who is unconscious. Barry thinks, fuck, she's seen me, I got to get her out of here. Except she fights him too and seriously injures him.
Barry to Fuchs..: "I didn't kill her."
Fuchs: Why not?
Barry: I'm not killing a kid. Besides she's like some feral mongoose. I'm not sure she is of this world.
Fuchs takes an injured Barry to find her. They do, she's sitting at the side of the road...and she takes one look at Fuchs and climbs a tree, leaps onto the roof, and poses in a spider-monkey pose. Fuchs looks at her and races back to the car. "Okay, you're right, she ain't human. But once you're feeling better, climb on the roof and kill her."
Barry refuses. The girl leaps on their roof, they freak, then decide it must be an acorn. Continue to argue, the girl whips into the car through the window then attacks Fuchs by attaching her mouth to his cheek. Fuchs asks Barry to kill her, to get her off. Barry refuses.
Barry: "Get her off yourself."
Fuchs: I can't, I superglued my hands to the steering wheel. (Earlier when Barry's stitches came out of his back where the girl knifed him, Fuchs sealed it with superglue.)
Barry: Just shake your head to shake her off.
She finally lets go and whips out of the car and glares at them, her mouth bloody.
Fuchs: What are you?
And it continues to go on from there....I laughed so hard, I was coughing. Stephen Root and Bill Handler are amazingly good in this thing. As is Henry Wrinkler.
Not for everyone though.
2. The debate of Game of Thrones in our critical media is fascinating
Why Everybody's So Mad About Daenerys Targaryen
Some Game of Thrones fans think that what happened in “The Bells” marked the show’s boldest subversion of tropes yet. Some Game of Thrones fans think it was barely explained or built to. Some Game of Thrones fans are really fucking mad. Some Game of Thrones fans (hi!) think Dany’s decision to burn King’s landing was a bold subversion of tropes that, nonetheless, was barely explained or built to.
How you interpret this scene — and I’m not joking about this — could open up serious rifts in your friendships. People are yelling at each other over Game of Thrones like never before, divided over Dany’s choice and the show’s depiction of that choice. And why they’re yelling at each other is grounded in very, very old discussions about women in power, the nature of art, and the most effective way to tell a story.
I find it fascinating because it shines a bright light on our cultural and political divisiveness.
3. I took a long walk, a beautiful one through the park. It's a lovely day, in the low 70s, a nice breeze, crystal blue sky, and very green. I walked up and through the park and after a bit..lost track of the number of people walking and texting. None of them taking in or breathing in the beauty around them.
Their heads bent over their phones as they walked their dog through a lush tree-lined path, where a man was hugging and kissing his baby son. Or as they walked behind their husband and child tweeting on their phones, crossing busy streets, absorbed by whatever was on the screen. If something happened to their child -- they'd not see it. At a lake, with mallard ducks and Canadian geese, people sat on the grass or benches texting.
Engaged in an on-going discourse over...what exactly? And as I look up, I see a beautiful sky, hear birds, and green trees, red and purple flowers. A black plastic bag hangs from a tree, and plastic bags are hidden under the water. The mallard ducks appear to be sitting on rocks in the lake, but upon closer inspection, its plastic black garbage bags covering the shore line and...in the lake. There are green porta potties on the path to the lake. It's a beautiful park, but everywhere are signs of humanity's waste and disrespect for the world around them.
I remember the 1980s and early 1990s, before the internet. Where I'd take walks and people would look at each other and say hello. Or sit on the subway and people would talk to you or interact. If we discussed a show or book, it was done for a few hours in person or via letter, where you are forced to really think over your response and forced to think about what the other person wrote, and then we moved on to something else. Time seemed to be something we enjoyed, not raced through to get to something else, and noticed, looking at the world around us. Now? We don't pay attention to these things.
It's sort of the Kominsky Method by way of the Cohen Brothers...
Barry is asked by the partner of the cop, that he'd murdered, to kill someone. That someone turns out to be an Tae Kwon Do Medalist who is dating the man's wife. He's not so much as asked, as blackmailed into it. What ensues is a comedy of errors of epic proportions. Barry goes, fully covered, to tell the guy -- look I have no intention of killing you -- just hope in a car, drive to Chicago and stay there.
But instead the guy fights him, Barry disables his windpipe, but he keeps fighting him -- "Dude, your windpipe is disabled." Finally the guy keels over. Barry attempts to take off, only to run into the guy's daughter who sees him and runs to find her father -- who is unconscious. Barry thinks, fuck, she's seen me, I got to get her out of here. Except she fights him too and seriously injures him.
Barry to Fuchs..: "I didn't kill her."
Fuchs: Why not?
Barry: I'm not killing a kid. Besides she's like some feral mongoose. I'm not sure she is of this world.
Fuchs takes an injured Barry to find her. They do, she's sitting at the side of the road...and she takes one look at Fuchs and climbs a tree, leaps onto the roof, and poses in a spider-monkey pose. Fuchs looks at her and races back to the car. "Okay, you're right, she ain't human. But once you're feeling better, climb on the roof and kill her."
Barry refuses. The girl leaps on their roof, they freak, then decide it must be an acorn. Continue to argue, the girl whips into the car through the window then attacks Fuchs by attaching her mouth to his cheek. Fuchs asks Barry to kill her, to get her off. Barry refuses.
Barry: "Get her off yourself."
Fuchs: I can't, I superglued my hands to the steering wheel. (Earlier when Barry's stitches came out of his back where the girl knifed him, Fuchs sealed it with superglue.)
Barry: Just shake your head to shake her off.
She finally lets go and whips out of the car and glares at them, her mouth bloody.
Fuchs: What are you?
And it continues to go on from there....I laughed so hard, I was coughing. Stephen Root and Bill Handler are amazingly good in this thing. As is Henry Wrinkler.
Not for everyone though.
2. The debate of Game of Thrones in our critical media is fascinating
Why Everybody's So Mad About Daenerys Targaryen
Some Game of Thrones fans think that what happened in “The Bells” marked the show’s boldest subversion of tropes yet. Some Game of Thrones fans think it was barely explained or built to. Some Game of Thrones fans are really fucking mad. Some Game of Thrones fans (hi!) think Dany’s decision to burn King’s landing was a bold subversion of tropes that, nonetheless, was barely explained or built to.
How you interpret this scene — and I’m not joking about this — could open up serious rifts in your friendships. People are yelling at each other over Game of Thrones like never before, divided over Dany’s choice and the show’s depiction of that choice. And why they’re yelling at each other is grounded in very, very old discussions about women in power, the nature of art, and the most effective way to tell a story.
I find it fascinating because it shines a bright light on our cultural and political divisiveness.
3. I took a long walk, a beautiful one through the park. It's a lovely day, in the low 70s, a nice breeze, crystal blue sky, and very green. I walked up and through the park and after a bit..lost track of the number of people walking and texting. None of them taking in or breathing in the beauty around them.
Their heads bent over their phones as they walked their dog through a lush tree-lined path, where a man was hugging and kissing his baby son. Or as they walked behind their husband and child tweeting on their phones, crossing busy streets, absorbed by whatever was on the screen. If something happened to their child -- they'd not see it. At a lake, with mallard ducks and Canadian geese, people sat on the grass or benches texting.
Engaged in an on-going discourse over...what exactly? And as I look up, I see a beautiful sky, hear birds, and green trees, red and purple flowers. A black plastic bag hangs from a tree, and plastic bags are hidden under the water. The mallard ducks appear to be sitting on rocks in the lake, but upon closer inspection, its plastic black garbage bags covering the shore line and...in the lake. There are green porta potties on the path to the lake. It's a beautiful park, but everywhere are signs of humanity's waste and disrespect for the world around them.
I remember the 1980s and early 1990s, before the internet. Where I'd take walks and people would look at each other and say hello. Or sit on the subway and people would talk to you or interact. If we discussed a show or book, it was done for a few hours in person or via letter, where you are forced to really think over your response and forced to think about what the other person wrote, and then we moved on to something else. Time seemed to be something we enjoyed, not raced through to get to something else, and noticed, looking at the world around us. Now? We don't pay attention to these things.