Day #361 ...

[shadowkat]

I got my binoculars - no not the ones I'd ordered for my birthday and never came. These are the ones I ordered on Sunday. Celestron as opposed to Vortex. They are cheaper and do basically the same thing. Amazon delivered it in their white envelope and I grabbed it right after I got the notice.

Also got a new intercom installed. It took about two and 1/2 hours. One to remove. They disappeared for about an hour. Then installed the new one.



I was advised to push speaker first, then the unlock button. Never just push the unlock button or key first. Also, it won't work until Thursday.

Didn't sleep well last night. My own fault - I went to bed angry. Never a good idea. So as a result, I had weird nightmares where I was fighting with or yelling at people. I don't remember what it was about. But I work up tired, and groggy. And with the weather shifts, I've had a dull sinus headache all day long - plus I want a nap. I kept drifting off this morning, so I got myself some hot chocolate. It helped for a bit. Got lunch, talked to mother - who is frustrated and thinks she's going to immobile and homebound forever. And wonders if she'll ever walk again. Then went back to work.

To stave off boredom, I entertained myself by reading reviews of the Snydercut of The Justice League movie. I would say it was a new movie, but it really isn't. It's just an elongated re-cut version of the previous one released in 2017. The critics don't appear to like it much better than they liked the previous version - actually they like the previous one better - because it was shorter. I have a feeling this version from all reports should be watched over a couple of days and not all at once. It's kind of broken up in a way that works better for streaming according to the reviews.

From what I've read to date? If you are a huge Snyder fan - you'll love the movie. If you are ambivalent or not, you'll be either lost or bored.
Curious to see if it does well.

Also to stave off boredom, I continued my discussions with the folks on scans daily about the movie. Did get one compliment for being rational and logical about it. After everything I've read, and all the information I've gathered on the topic? I've come to the conclusion that maybe the allegations against Whedon were exaggerated or blown out of proportion? God knows. I wasn't there. It doesn't really matter what I or any of us think about it. And honestly, it happened a long time ago. Whedon's moved on. We're in the middle of a pandemic. People are dying. Hello.

Oh well, at least I got my binoculars. Now I can entertain myself watching birds outside my dirty windows.

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

I'm curious how the Snyder cut will do as well. We have HBO Max anyway so I might watch it. I was not taken with the one previously released. I wasn't utterly bored but neither had I any interest in seeing it again. I daresay the discussion surrounding it will be the most interesting thing.

[shadowkat]

I'm having an interesting discussion about it on scans daily - there are a lot of incredibly self-righteous people there, who I keep butting heads with. Who clearly don't know how to have a civil discussion or argue without attacking the person posting the argument. (Sigh fandom. Sigh comic book fandom.) I got annoyed by one of them - and flipped the argument on its head. I preferred the discussion.

I wasn't utterly bored but neither had I any interest in seeing it again.

Agreed. I felt the same way. It was okay. It wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be. But I didn't find it entertaining enough to re-watch. While I have re-watched both Avengers films, and Infinity War and Endgame. But I care about dialogue and story, and Snyder really doesn't. Snyder is basically an ARTIST, and likes to paint pictures with film. He's kind of a poor man's Terence Malick, or the geeky video game fantatic version? I get bored watching Terence Malik films for the same reasons.

That said, Snyder can be entertaining. There were bits of Dawn of Justice that I enjoyed. I remember having a lengthy debate with a woman once about the MCU vs. the DCU films, I've also discussed them with my cubical mate. Both enjoyed Justice League far more than I did. And the woman I debated it with preferred the DCU films to the MCU films. Interesting. I preferred the MCU.

[atpo_onm]

Snyder is basically an ARTIST, and likes to paint pictures with film. He's kind of a poor man's Terence Malick, or the geeky video game fanatic version? I get bored watching Terence Malik films for the same reasons.

Fascinating. I don't think I've ever seen a Malick film that I didn't like, and some, to me, are simply stunning, like The New World or Days of Heaven. I do like your observation about "painting pictures with film". That certainly describes Malick, and I'm sure that's why his works resonate with me. I kind of suspect that if I had ever become a filmmaker, I'd probably try to do that.

*******

Unrelated, but I've wanted to ask you for a while now-- have you heard from cjl at all? Is he OK? He hasn't posted in quite a while, I'm becoming concerned.

Thanks.

[shadowkat]

Unrelated, but I've wanted to ask you for a while now-- have you heard from cjl at all? Is he OK? He hasn't posted in quite a while, I'm becoming concerned.

He was, to my knowledge, only responding to other people's posts from about September 2020 to December 2020, then stopped. And he was only responding to my music and television and film memes, along with wendahl and beergood's. When I switched to gratitude and book meme - he stopped responding. He wasn't posting at all - since about July 2020, I think.

CJL is like beergoodfoamy - he comes and goes, like the wind. Posts for a brief period then disappears completely. Then comes back then disappears. He's been doing that since 2004.
Sometimes he'll disappear for a year or two.

It's why I'm not all that concerned. He's not a frequent blogger like we are.

I do know that he has a family, his wife is a teacher, and his son goes to school, and he works in a bank - so during a pandemic - that's going to take its toll. And he may want a break from it?
He doesn't tend to use dreamwidth for the same reasons I do - I know that.

Anyhow, no, I've not heard from him since around November or December when I finished my film, music and television and horror memes.

****

On filmmakers like Malick? I admittedly find films that are mainly into the cinematography kind of boring. I need a story - and dialogue and characterization. My brother on the other hand is the exact opposite - he prefers the visual style, and doesn't care about dialogue or story. It was the type of photography/artist/filmmaker that my brother was in school - he was more of a conceptual artist - into the look of the thing. He and his wife are both designers. They are the same way about music - more into the composition or sound of the piece. While I care about the words. Although there is cross over of course.

The only Malick film I've made it all the way through was Tree of Life. The others...I get bored rather quickly and change channels. Snyder is kind of a busier nosier version of Malick - he likes a lot of noise and visuals, but cares little for story or words. Neither are writers.

Christopher Plummer who was in The New World - states he has this long important monologue and various scenes. He sees the film, and realizes that he can barely tell that he is even in it. He just hears his conversation as noise and can make out his voice somewhere in the background, dimly. Terence, Plummer states in the Oscar Roundtable (this was about five years ago? It's on Youtube and I stumbled across it late one night recently), is not a writer or not a good one. He has no idea what story he is going to tell. Just writes reams. Has everyone act it. Then pulls everything out in the editing. The film is basically created in the editing room - with 85% of the story on the editing room floor.

Snyder doesn't go that far, but he is similar.

Lots of pretty paintings, not a lot of story.

[cactuswatcher]

I've had a Celestron telescope for a long time. If your new binoculars are anywhere near as well made, you should be very happy with them!

[shadowkat]

I just have to figure out how to use them. I've always struggled with that in regards to binoculars and telescopes. But I also have never really owned any.

[elisi]

Amazon delivered it in their white envelope
Amazon envelopes in America are WHITE? Ours are all brown. (Parcel, envelope or inbetween. ALWAYS that colour.) It's these differences that I find fascinating.

[shadowkat]

Yes, the envelopes are white with blue writing and detail. (FedEX is white with red lettering, UPS is brown with black lettering, and USPS is either white or brown.) My guess is they are trying to distinguish from Fed Ex and UPS and DHL - because of copyright issues, and potential confusion?

ETA: the boxes and in-between are the same as yours. Only difference is the envelopes - but that's mostly to distinguish from UPS, DHL, FEDEX and USPS, I think.

[elisi]

Thank you. I love stuff like this. :)

If it's not auto focus

[cactuswatcher]

The center knob focuses both lenses, if you have a second knob on one of the eye pieces it's to be adjusted in case one of your eyes is a little off from the other. Trying looking at something outside your window, the moon or anything more than a few steps away. Play with the center knob first, till you can see it sharply. It may take some turning. If both your eyes aren't in focus at once try adjusting the knob on the eyepiece. That's usually all there is to binoculars. You'll have to focus with the center knob again for nearly everything new you look at, but you can leave the knob on the eyepiece alone.

[trepkos]

I'll be interested to hear what birds you see!

[shadowkat]

So far? Just the cats wandering about my backyard.

[shadowkat]

You're welcome. I'd include photos - but DW is wonky.

Re: If it's not auto focus

[shadowkat]

Thanks, I did manage to get a clear view of the cat, so it may have worked. It is set up exactly as you stated. A center knob, and a second knob on one of the eyepieces.

[atpo_onm]

Re: cjl...

do know that he has a family, his wife is a teacher, and his son goes to school, and he works in a bank - so during a pandemic - that's going to take its toll. And he may want a break from it?

I was thinking along the same lines, and certainly hope that's the case, and that it's not a COVID issue with him or a family member.

If you do hear from him off-line, please pass along that I was asking about him.

Re: Malick...

It's all just more proof how different minds process things differently. One of the more striking moments I've had in my movie-viewing years was sitting in the theater watching The New World when it was released, and about ten or so minutes into the film realizing that there was no dialog! Just a series of images, sounds, music flowing along that for me, told a story perfectly without words.

I enjoy well-written dialog, so for me it's never an either/or situation, which I've come to realize that I'm (once again) unusual. I seem to simply go with whatever flow the filmmakers want to present, and try to shift my mental gears into their viewpoint instead of imposing mine over it. Doesn't always work, since of course some films are not done well, but I always try to give the benefit of the doubt.

In any event, your comments inspired me to locate some old screencaps from DVDs I was into collecting some years back, one set of which was from The New World. I'm posting some of them on my blog, so you may enjoy checking them out! Photographically speaking, they are simply gorgeous, IMO.

[shadowkat]

Re cjl: will do.

Re Malick:

Oh I love beautiful cinematography - I just need more in a film. My brother is more like you as is his wife - in which the sound and look...are in some respects more captivating than the narrative or narrative structure. It's not that they don't love a good story or narrative structure - they do, it's just their focus and concern is more on the technical aspects of the visuals, sound editing, etc. It's because they are coming at it from a film or cinematographic perspective. Examples? My brother's favorite superhero film is the Ang Lee film - The Incredible Hulk - which is the one no one remembers that well - but from a visual perspective? It's amazing. Lee films it like he is doing a graphic comic, with split screens extra. My brother also loved Kubrick's 2001 - he adores this film, the sound, the editing, the style, even if there's not much story or narrative structure, and the actors largely don't matter. The visual metaphors, and technique behind it is amazing to him - he took his daughter to see it with a symphonic orchestra. And he felt the same way about the Titantic - the visuals he fell in love with, and how it was scored, not the songs - the orchestra scoring.

All of those films - I can appreciate, but I found them boring, and I had no interest in re-watching. He hated Rain Man - his wife and him ripped it to shreds. The visual style and filmmaking was too simplestic. I enjoyed it - because my focus was on the performances of the actors and the dialogue. My brother loves live concerts - I find them uninteresting, and for the most part not worth my time. I love live musicals, plays, dance or ballet - my brother is uninterested in these art forms. He likes performance art, but he doesn't tend to like musicals or plays at all.

We do occasionally meet in the middle here and there. We both loved Buffy/Angel, and enjoyed Star Wars, and have loved other films. But we also hit divides. He loved the film Bohemian Rhapsody, and I hated it, why? We focused on different things. He focused on the technique behind the visuals and sound, I focused on the story, dialogue, narrative structure and performances. While I admit the visuals and sound were excellent - that's not enough, while in contrast, I've loved films and shows with little visual or sound artistry, and he can appreciate them, they aren't enough for him without the other. It's not really an either/or, just more a preference?