I want people to examine their relationships

 as one might examine art.

You know how one's thoughts

 can be a pack of wolves.

- Iris Murdoch

It was better

 when it was really bad.

- graffiti in Bosnia, Sebastian Junger's "Tribe"

I say:

What are they looking for in heaven, all these blind people? 

- Two Brothers

Souls

 grown dizzy. 

Beautiful

 dirt. 

This talisman is fragile, and the day will come when it will collapse miserably.

Then the ancient stony gods will rise from the forgotten debris and rub the dust of a thousand years from their eyes, and finally Thor with his giant hammer will jump up and smash the Gothic cathedrals.

- Heinrich Heine

Often wrong,

 never in doubt.

- Mike D's family motto

The human cost

 of the mattress price wars. 

Threading

 the infinite. 

- Tartarus #10

The one you feed.

The New Mutants - 2/5

It's bad, but I also don't want to discount the good things in it. It's got the aesthetics of a CW show, and that's meant to be an insult as well as a compliment. The characters, barring the main, are characters! A lot comes across in their one note. Sam Guthrie is Southern troubled, Rahne Sinclaire is Catholic troubled, Roberto daCosta is rich boy troubled, and Anna Taylor-Joy's Illyana Rasputin is instantly crush-able. I like them. There's a season-long plot in here; too bad it was thrown away in a movie.

He comforts her. They spark. That's the lightning. They kiss. Thunder.

 Top Hat – 2.5/5

It's baby's first Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers' joint. And if it's the best, as they say, I don't think I entirely understand the pairing. He, I get, all lightness, all air. And what's said of her is that she did it all backwards, and high heels. Props to you, ma'am, indeed, no disrespect intended, but that sounds like work, and Fred Astaire as seen on-screen has never worked a day in his life. You were keeping up and he, simply, was. 

This movie I will also use as a jumping-off point for why I have lately found it difficult to write these little things. I used to think a whole of a movie was everything, looking for perfection from front to back and everything against that was a half-a-point docked. And well, not to overly simplify a bigger rationale and how larger cultural trends fit into it, but it's fine to just have some good spots. There's some good spots in here. 

Watched 1/9/21

A Low and Distant Sound Gradually Swelling and Increasing

Tickled – 2.5/5

"Funny video about Extreme Endurance Tickling takes a sinister turn." It's a fun thing to say you're watching and that's about the tall and short of it. 

Watched 1/7/21

Of stillness, the kingdom of God.

The sound of metal – 3.5/5

What do I want to say, I've forgotten how to do this. 

It makes me wonder why more movies haven't used metal as a backdrop? Pain! Anger! No room for subtlety! It's all at the front; everything is left on the stage. The movie is a good match for the genre; the frustration, the sweatiness, the ringing in your ear. Beyond that, I think the movie could have brought its story closer to the genre. It becomes a layer instead of the layer; addiction and girlfriends just aren't as interesting to me as perhaps a passion to play. A need to scream because you don't know how to speak. Riz Ahmed is great and deserves his props, but Paul Raci is the heart and soul. He is the stillness the movie harps on about; he's found his words and doesn't need to say them aloud.

Watched 1/3/21

About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters:

how well they understood Its human position: how it takes place While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along; 

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on. 

Musée des Beaux Arts, W.H. Auden

Take it that you have died today,

And your life's story is ended; and henceforward regard what further time may be given you as an unconvenanted surplus, and live it out in harmony with nature. 

Marcus Aurelius

It was better

 When it was really bad.

He wants the adventure

 But not the trouble. 

In every word

 A world.