Remote
schamspeare
@schamspeare@mstdn.social
mastodon 4.7.2Interested in anonymity, imaginary ailments, 60s/70's electro-acoustic music (and other music), the books I used to read, movies (mostly high pretension classics, 30s Hollywood classics, and campy b-movies), doing chess puzzles and playing chess at the idiot level, dogs (except tiny ones bred to be carried), alcoholic drinks, birds, colors. Dislikes: short-sleeved collared shirts, the writing in recent tv shows, people who carry extra-wide umbrellas, people who seem to like everything.
0 Followers
0 Following
50 Posts
Joined November 06, 2022
Music Scraps:
Letterboxd:
20 Albums:
Replying to
@wilpercy@beige.party 100% agree. Unfortunately, I don't think we will see that kind of reckoning. Trump will die before he sees a real rebuke. The others will transition to other lucrative roles without ever having to admit, publicly or to themselves, the harm they did. And the voters have many, many layers of psychic protection against introspection and self-analysis. The most we can hope for is an actual backlash to Trumpism. But nobody will ever pay a price, feel any shame, or face punishment.
Ugh. Surely that’s it.
Paraguay did well to keep up for this long.
#WorldCup
Replying to
@Fluse@social.cologne @dogzilla@masto.deluma.biz Something tells me Alex.Karlsen will easily shrug this off. Americans are ready to tear out their neighbour's eyes because of how terrible things are getting, but don't you dare suggest they have anything to learn from anyone else. They'll take their socialism in the form of GoFundMe campaigns the moment someone gets sick, thank you very much. They'll be reduced to asking for charity when the time comes. Until then, self-reliance!!!
Replying to
@jeffjarvis@mastodon.social Definitely not going to happen. US journalism is cowardly and flat-footed.
Tests that could have kept #Trump from becoming president (and which I propose as mandatory minimum thresholds for the office henceforward):
1) grade 6 math test
2) singing a one octave interval
3) naming 12 countries in Europe
4) listening to someone for thirty minutes without talking or sleeping
5) naming five works of art (that are in museums)
6) has raised a pet
7) grade 12 civics (US history, government, constitution) test
I know it seems like I've intentionally made it insurmountable.
Replying to
@dlundh@mastodon.nu Yeah. There’s something about it. Maybe even just how cynical it is, how little effort is being made. Looks like it was filmed in a weekend, and you can tell not one person gives a shit.
Replying to
@dlundh@mastodon.nu I like the spontaneous and unfussy cinematography in these films, too. Nothing framed carefully. Nothing pretentious. Wide angle lenses here and there. Everything feeling kind of random and spur-of-the-moment in a way that I unironically dig.
Replying to
@dlundh@mastodon.nu Definitely. I think it has excellent zombies actually - the face make-up and masks. The score is also kind of cool. But practically nothing else. Okay, a few boobs, a little bit of gore, and yes, Peter Bark.
I own it, though. And have seen it several times, probably three or four by now. So I’m a hypocritical critic.
#Watching Burial Ground. It’s one of those films that offers nothing in terms of a sense of human company. To explain: none of the dialogue is important, none of the actors show anything real, no touches of personality shine through. The actors are furniture. There is no directorial voice. I know it’s asking a lot for a dumb zombie movie to offer more than that, but nonetheless, it’s a criterion I use, usually subconsciously, to evaluate #movies, and this one is lonely as fuck. Good makeup, tho.
Replying to
@Cyberoutsider The world should not award Trump any form of "victory" here, either for ending a war or winning a war. This has been disastrous by any measure. Thousands dead. Things much worse than before. US credibility and image badly stained.
Whisky sour.
Right up there, especially if you use a decent, high alcohol whisky. It’s never going to be a complex drink, but add bitters and it’s getting there. The only drawback is how quick and bingeable they are.
Maybe you've seen Masonna on stage and have thought, this guy is just a shitheel attention-seeker. But this album, though of course stupidly outlandish if you've never heard any so-called harsh noise, is actually quite well organized — organized into many short segments that introduce enough variation and change to keep it interesting, much more so than many other noise albums. Even within its limited sonic palette (and means), it's surprising how "structured" it is.
“Modern” gimlet, i.e. gin daiquiri. With aesthetically suboptimal lime slice.
Sacrilegious to say, but I think I prefer it to a daiquiri. But maybe my rum is just bland.
Send ICE to Iran. Send Bovino. Send the “patriots.” Or are they only tough enough to take on the poor and defenseless?
Made it to this position against the computer and then, with 30 seconds left — yes, I play with a clock even against the computer — proceeded to lose immediately. When I analyzed it afterwards, I realized that, though I was apparently winning by a landslide, I was incapable of making moves from this point onward that didn't result in me losing.
Replying to
@pallenberg Only a barbarian or a total idiot would make a declaration like this. There is no good outcome. Either you follow through and become an evil despot, staining the US for a century, or you chicken out and look like the biggest fool, whose threats are all completely hollow.
“Stark warning”? “Grave threat”? “Civilizational threat”?
Again, the media is showing that it is not up to the task of covering a lunatic. Maybe they just don’t have the fucking vocabulary.
Go ahead and use the word that comes immediately to mind: “insane.” I know you think it’s too colloquial or too alarmist. How about “demented”? “Maniacal”? How about “a frenzied rant”? All of these are appropriate. How about “bloodthirsty.” How about “a threat of genocide.”
Replying to
@gleick Yeah, they are proving they just don't have the critical / linguistic acumen to intelligently assess what is going on. Either they have made the decision to prop up the Trump regime, or they are so lazy that they do it accidentally.
The US has never looked so foolish and so weak. Trump starts a war and three weeks later, despite Iran being bombed incessantly and being the only side to suffer serious casualties, THEY are in the driver’s seat and setting the terms of Trump’s surrender, and they’re all worse for the United States than the former status quo. “Embarrassing” doesn’t cover it.
Replying to
@wilpercy Swallows are super underrated birds. They're not much to look at when they're sitting still — which is practically never — but they're the most dazzling aerialists.
Nothing makes any sense anymore.
Over time, this list has come to seem more and more discerning. And not just because it features many films that I also love.
The Bertolucci films are new additions. He must have done an interview somewhere.
I would choose videos of Sha'Carri Richardson's pre-race rituals over 99% of the stuff on Pornhub, and probably be equally turned on.
I’m always very happy to see production / marketing stills on Indicator blurays. Criterion never includes them. I always find them very fascinating and only wish I could get them off the disc and onto my computer.
Imagine being in a negotiating position where you're agreeing to all the demands of the weaker party because you've made a threat so morally repugnant that, if you were to carry it out, it would be ruinous to you. You're holding a gun to their head and you're paying them so you don't have to fire it. The definition of backing yourself into a corner.
I guess the people of the United States are just going to stand back and watch? Just wait and see?
We know #Trump often chickens out, we know his word counts for nothing, but I would hate to think my country was on the precipice of an atrocity and it was basically eliciting a shrug from the other branches of government and most of the citizenry.
Surely there's a line in Sun Tzu, if not in the Idiot's Guide to International Warfare, about not threatening to do something that you actually don't want to do.
Finally watching The Pitt. Basically excellent, a few nits notwithstanding.
— In terms of their caregiving, the doctors are basically all saints. They all demonstrate the kind of empathy and personalized attention that, in real life, no emergency doctor could sustain.
— Even for me, this feels a bit like liberal propaganda. It's like the West Wing of hospital dramas. If there's a mistake, it leads to a positive teachable moment. A liberal utopia, just short on funding. Everybody is good.
Replying to
@handmade_ghost I'm with you. They seem like the most exotic bird in my area. The subtle color gradations are so beautiful. Great aerialists, too!
Nothing changes. It still seems to be considered “uncool” in rural Canada to wear clothes that are appropriately (and comfortably!) warm. If you’re under seventy. How much better to shiver and freeze your ears and hands!
So what sources are you using for #news?
What is it called when you hollow out education, culture, healthcare, and other social programs, and channel all your energy and resources into expanding the military? I guess that’s just standard fascism.
Replying to
@skykiss@sfba.social Put an asterisk beside any future progress in the tournament for the US.
I hope they get their asses kicked today anyway.
Classic electro-acoustic burp and bleep salad. Swamps of reverb and delay. Actually quite good and varied. 26 minutes!
#NYTimes really working hard to foreground this story about the rescued soldier. It's been the headline story on the site for the past three days. Maybe they think this itself is the victory that could end the war, topping the list of achievements that includes closing the strait, killing 3500 Iranians, raising prices for everyone in the West, wasting billions of dollars, strengthening China and Russia, and further tanking the reputation of the United States. Proud days.
If the US ever goes back to normal, honest government, I’m going to need reconstructive surgery from all the eye rolling I’m going to do when conservatives start decrying tan suits as impeachable offenses again.
Tepid kickoff to my #eBird logging season today with two magpies, five crows, and a nuthatch.
Just had a waking nightmare that I accidentally included a five dollar bill in a letter of condolence I sent, like my grandmother did with my birthday cards.
Any news from America's right wing? I suppose they're pleased with the economy, the war, and the state of the country under their messiah.
I will now go on a 10,000 step walk, during which time I will eat two chocolate bars, negating the health benefits of the walk.