Trip to Governor's Island

Managed to go to Governor's Island finally with Wales. Governor's Island is an island in the middle of the New York City Harbor. New York has several islands. Staten Island (which keeps gobbling or trying to gobble my doctors - stop it Staten Island or I'll wish a hurricane chomps on your ass, it also plagues us with insane conservative representatives, but that's also Southern Brooklyn). Liberty Island has the Statue of Liberty. Ellis Island with the Immigrant Entry Point for those who reach the States by Sea (legally). Randall's Island where they are having the Electric Zoo Concert, and other musical concerts. Governor's Island - where Fort Jay used to reside, and it was once a military outpost - now they are turning it into an environmental research and conceptual art location, with sustainable urban farming, spa, and glamping (luxury camping). In addition there's Manhattan, Long Island, Riker's Island, Roosevelt Island, and another one I can't remember the name of. There's a lot of islands around New York and New Jersey.

It took about forty-five minutes to get to the Ferry. I was convinced it would take an hour (because I thought the ferry was further away from my doctor's office than it actually was - it was five minutes not twenty as I'd expected). Fifteen minute train ride, approximately twenty-thirty minutes walking. View from the ferry is below:



As you can see? It was a beautiful day - in the seventies and blue skies. Today looks like it is going to be equally beautiful with blue skies and temperatures in the upper 80s. We reached 81 yesterday.

When we arrived on Governor's island - we discovered...
( Trip to and from Governor's Island )

Overall - we walked at least 6.7 miles according to my phone, and 14,281 steps. Not bad. More than I've walked in a long time. Wales thinks we'll both be sore tomorrow.

I'm writing this tomorrow - and no, I'm not sore. But I also average between 2-4 miles daily, with commute and errands. My main mode of transportation is my feet. Six to ten floors is average. And at least 1-2 miles is average just to get to and from most places. And I'm doing yoga stretches more now, and trying to stay in shape. Might add weights. I also walk to the park, Greenwood Cemetery, and the thirty minutes to the Food Coop and Health Food Store.

Wales though, will be sore. She walks maybe half a mile each day. And doesn't do as much walking as I do.

The Flash - Film Review

Finally got around to seeing The Flash via Streamings "MAX" channel.
It was eventually coming to MAX anyhow, since it was produced and distributed by HBO and Warner Brothers. Surprisingly enough, I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. From reviews, I expected it to be gadawful, but it's not a bad film.

In case you are living under a cultural rock - this was the film that bombed this year at the box office, and has been touted as the worst superhero film ever. (It's not - that's an exaggeration. Apparently a lot of folks have not seen most of the superhero flicks released in the 1980s-roughly the early part of the 21st century? There's a lot of bad superhero flicks to choose from. Many of which are unwatchable. Far worse than this, actually this was surprisingly enough not all that bad. The millennials are spoiled in regards to superhero action flicks. You want to see a truly bad superhero action flick? Check out Superman: the Quest for Peace. I saw that at an outdoor theater in Wales in the 1980s, and we spent the entire film making fun of it. It is the worst superhero film I've seen. Granted - I've not seen the latest Fantastic Four - which I'm told was pretty bad, but I still think Quest for Peace reigns as the worst superhero film.)

I went into this with really low expectations. But it was surprisingly good in places, and not quite as bad as I was lead to believe. The CGI was actually better than Guardians of the Galaxy, which gave me a headache. And I found the movie to be less busy, and less head-ache inducing than say, Suicide Squad, and the CGI battle held together slightly better than Whedon's Justice League or again Guardians - which had too much going on, and got choppy.

The problem with CGI in any movie - is less is more. If you use too much of it, it starts looking a bit fake and like a video game. Also, you need a really good film editor, who can cut well between the action sequences. And it's best not to use it for actors - or too much with them.

That was the biggest problem with the film - it needed a better film editor and should have been a bit more sparing with CGI, although I admittedly felt the same way about Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Adam, and Suicide Squad. What distinguished the Flash from those - was it was a bit choppier in places, and they used CGI too much with actors and supporting players.

( spoilers )

Overall? A solid C film, or two and half to three stars. Enjoyable but nothing to rave about (I wouldn't necessarily want to pay for it), and certainly not nearly as bad as everyone is claiming. But it should be noted, I'm not a huge Flash fan, and this iteration of the Flash, I like better than the Television Series versions (which I've given up on at various points). Ezra Miller may be an asshole with serious issues, but he can act and manages to carry off the role effectively. Same is true with Keaton and Sarah Callis, who both pull off their roles fairly well.

No, the main problem was the clumsy use of CGI. And the clumsy plot points - both trying to reboot the universe so that DC can recast the big roles and go in a different direction.

(no subject)

So, everyone who left Xitter for BlueSky and Threads, popped back again. Is it just me or does this happen a lot with social media platforms? Folks if I leave a place - I leave it. I left Live Journal and did not return. I've not left Xitter, just deleted it off the phone - because I didn't want an X app on the phone - also it was unhealthy. But the account is still there. X - isn't that bad. The rules are the same as everywhere else. LJ is bad - those rules were a)in reason, and b) gave Russia complete copyright ownership of my content unless I subscribed. No.

Even Mark Hamil returned.

We have Book Twitter back in full. Margaret Atwood and Joyce Carol Oates are tweeting up a storm. Oates is mainly reminding me of why I'm happy I'm not a English Lit Professor or Major any longer and can read and write whatever the hell I want. I don't think I could survive for long in a profession that insisted I read Dickens, Bronte, Melville, or the rest of the 19th and early 20th Century Literary Canon.

Also Oates pooh-poohed Dickens Tale of Two Cities as being a lesser work, since it was shorter, and his longer works were the better ones. Eh. Tale was 448 pages, and it was one of the better ones. I don't like Dickens, and I don't have to like him. Or own him. Or read him. I can pretend he doesn't exist. And it will not change or effect my life one iota.

Same deal with Melville. There's no reason why I should read Moby Dick. Nor do I feel the need to do so. The freedom of not being stuck in academia is kind of awesome. Remind me not to go back. Art school - yes, academia no.
I did flirt with becoming a narratologist, until I realized I was already doing it online, and I'd get bored quickly if they forced me to read only established canon. I need to be able to analyze non-established canon.

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Didn't feel well today - blood sugar issues. Low blood sugar headache and a kind of wooziness. ( Read more... )

**

Watched:

Red, White and Blue - an LGBTA romance on Amazon. It was surprisingly good. One of the better male/male romances that I've seen to date. Both male leads were attractive, and very good actors. I felt for them. And found their characters relatable. Also, for once, the conflict was both internal and external, and not a stupid misunderstanding or cliche. I think what helped was the "homosexual" angle, and the fact that the romance was between the son of an American President running for re-election and the Prince of England (second-in-line to the throne, or possibly third). Stephen Fry plays the King (Prince Henry's grandfather) and Uma Thurman plays the American President.

One of the better romances I've seen online.

Also Five Star Chef - on Netflix. It's a new cooking reality series where they are hunting the next chef for a five star restaurant. It's more reality based than most - they start with the interview, then an audition, and those who pass the audition, go on to try out high priced meals for the judges, those who pass that stage - get the day off, while the others have to serve a meal to a busy restaurant at lunch, the chef whose menu (main course and dessert) is the most profitable wins, while the one whose menu is the least profitable is sent home. That's the most objective criteria I've seen to date. Also the most realistic. Can you survive in a busy, high stress kitchen environment, price your course selection correctly, not over-spend on ingredients, and make a profit?

Working as a chef is stressful - it's not for the faint of heart - and if you don't love it, there's no point. It consumes you, and takes over your life.

Oh, here's a watercolor I did a few days ago, it's more freestyle, not from a photo or anything, just my imagination. I was going for abstract.

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I finished A Daring Pursuit and am onto The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher.

Here's an interesting article on The Brother's Karamazov by Dostevoksy, in the Washington Post...

( Brother's Karamzov...a classic but not beyond criticism )

Goes to show you - that it is all subjective. My difficulty with reading it - has always been that I'd have to read the translation, and not the original Russian. And I'm not certain how well that works? Russian is a very different language than English - they aren't in the same group. German translates to English fairly well, as do many latin languages, where English has roots. But Russian doesn't.

I'm staying away from politics. I don't want to know.