- The Not So Hidden Israeli Politics of 'The Last of Us Part II'. The sequel to Last of Us is far more muddled than the original, but I still love it. There is a lot of criticism directed at the game, and it's interesting to read people's thoughts about where it fails. I didn't pick up on these parallels to the conflict in Israel, but it certainly feels like a viable take on things.
- Voting Trump Out Is Not Enough. The Democratic party really needs to figure out what its deal even is. Maybe you can win as not-quite Republicans against Trump during a pandemic, but i'm not sure how far that will get you in the long run. They also need to undo all the advantages the Republican Party has at the moment.
20 September 2020, early afternoon
This past weekend I was back at home in Scarborough, which seemed as good a time as any to watch films Shima has zero interest in watching. So it came to pass that I watched Sicario late Friday night, and its sequel early Saturday morning. Sicario is excellent. Emily Blunt plays an idealistic FBI agent who stumbles upon a house full of cartel murder victims in the opening minutes of the film. She then gets sucked into the world of two mysterious government agents who are pursuing the cartels much more aggressively and seemingly less by the book, played by Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro. The film is a look at the war on drugs and how messy it all is. Denis Villeneuve directs, his frequent partner Jóhann Jóhannsson scores the film, and Roger Deakins is behind the camera. That’s a pretty stellar movie-making posse. Each actor plays their part so perfectly. Del Toro is really incredible in this film. From start to finish it’s well executed film.
The sequel is … not as good. In some ways it feels like a well made 80s action film. Strangely xenophobic, perhaps? The movie involves Brolin and Del Toro’s characters orchestrating some dramatics in Mexico in response to a bombing the US feels is linked to the cartels. It’s a ridiculous story for a ridiculous film. Still, I can’t not like a movie with helicopters and machine guns. And Del Toro is still great in this movie.
Movies
9 September 2020, mid-morning
I started posting photographs on Flickr again. I have years of photographs just sitting on hard disks doing nothing. Never mind the film in my fridge. I should put them all somewhere.
Flickr is a strange beast nowadays. Smugmug has bought it, but will it survive? I assume there must be enough people who pay for Pro accounts because they are emotionally attached to the service. Or have so many years of photos and albums they want to preserve. Is that enough to keep the thing chugging along?
Such a shame Yahoo did so little with the service. They hoovered up so many classic Internet properties and then did nothing with them. There is an alternative time line where Flickr is the preeminent social media platform, and the world is good.
Photography
23 August 2020, late morning
I have become lax when it comes to writing about the movies I’ve seen. (Did you know I saw Parasite at the TIFF, before it won and Oscar and blew up all over the place. Well, I did!) Last night, with Mythilli visiting my parents, Shima and I decided to watch something scary: Hereditary. I had heard the film was good, and it did not disappoint. What a thoroughly creepy film, and a very impressive directorial debut for Ari Aster. Hereditary is part horror movie, part tragedy. We begin with a mother dealing with the death of her estranged (and perhaps creepy) mother, and move on from there quite quickly into more grief and trauma. I knew nothing about the film, and that’s probably the best way to enjoy any cinema, but in particular a film such as this. The actors are all great. Toni Collette has some fucking fantastic moment. This is well worth watching.
23 August 2020, late morning
I wrote what follows for a work newsletter. Our office manager wanted me to comment on my impending 10th year of working at Security Compass, an anniversary that passes today. It feels old fashioned to work at a place for 10 years. Really old fashioned. It is easy to be cynical about work, especially now, when the world feels like a real capitalist hell scape. No work place is perfect—I have read enough Marx to know that. But it is with no cynicism that I say I have enjoyed the last 10 years.
Read the rest of this post. (1187 words)
[1] Life
- Inside the elite border patrol unit Trump sent to Portland. My friend Shey made joke about how America has exported democracy to itself. To quote the Simpson's, "it's funny cuz it's true." From the article, 'Bortac agents are among “the most violent and racist in all law enforcementâ€'. That's a high bar to cross.
- YouTube : 8:46. Dave Chappelle did a live stand up special to take about George Floyd's death. Is it comedy? Probably not. It's amazing, though.
- YouTube: How Can We Win? This video is so much fire in under 7 minutes. So good. I get annoyed when people feel like they need decry rioting and looting in the same breath they offer their support for the protest. “Starbuck’s gonna be OK, don’t worry,†I think. It feels like we are treating a dead body like a broken a window. Kimberly Jones asks you to step back and ask how we even got to this point in the first place.
- The Unicorns Fell Into a Ditch. This article is too good, too quotable.
bq. Third-party delivery platforms [or basically anything coming out of the VC backed Sillicon Valley tech scene], as they’ve been built, just seem like the wrong model, but instead of testing, failing, and evolving, they’ve been subsidized into market dominance.
Read about pizza arbitrage and other good stuff.
- Solving the "The Miracle Sudoku". This is really quite incredible. Kind of a joy to watch him slowly realize the problem has a real solution, and that it's within his grasp.
