"Things get damaged, things get broken..."
A sunny, warm day today. We may it to 84˚F, and it's still 81˚F, with the heat index at 82˚F. I had a good walk in the sun and a fine light bath.
Thank fuck, I slept last night, thanks to a little extra CBD, and I felt human again today, as human as I ever feel. I was able to write the 784 words needed to finish the introduction to the next short-story collection, Vile Affections, due out from Subterranean Press either late this year or early in 2022 (I cannot remember). It was kinda momentous, writing this introduction, as it is the first time I've written an introduction for one of my collections since 2010, when I struggled with (and finally completed) the intro for Two Worlds and In Between. So, that's more than a decade between intros, but as this one says, after surviving 2020, I felt sorta obligated. All of the stories are pre-COVID-19.
Last night we watched Christopher Nolan's Tenet (2020). You should know, before I say more, that I adore Christopher Nolan. And yet, having said that, I'm really not sure what I think of Tenet. I noted on IMDb that it has a rating of only 7.4, while Inception (2010; my second favorite Nolan film after Dunkirk) has a rating of 8.8, which sorta reflects my own reaction - though I would say, personally, that Inception is a solid 9. Frankly, I suspect that Tenet might be one of those films - like The Fifth Element and Mad Max: Fury Road - I discover like a lot more the second time around, once my mind is cleared of expectations that got in the way. But maybe not. I was not impressed with John David Washington, though Robert Pattinson almost made up for it. The script was so-so. Kenneth Branagh's role was so oddly Bond villain that it seemed to have wandered in from a different movie. I was not crazy about Ludwig Göransson's score. The science and the science fiction were cool, but the story was labyrinthine even for Nolan, and there's a point at which a maze just starts to bore. So...yeah. I was really looking forward to Tenet, and I owe it at least one more viewing, because it might only have been me. But maybe not.
Oh, and we watched two more episodes of The Nevers. Episode Two was not much better than the pilot, but then Joss Whedon got out of the way and there was a different writer and different director for Episode Three, and suddenly the show felt like something. I'm not saying it's very good. I'm just saying it seems to be getting better.
I finished reading Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness today, and it was a good novel, yes, but I think it was likely a far more powerful novel when it was published in 1969. Next, I'm reading The Lathe of Heaven.
Later Taters,
Aunt Beast
6:05 p.m.
Thank fuck, I slept last night, thanks to a little extra CBD, and I felt human again today, as human as I ever feel. I was able to write the 784 words needed to finish the introduction to the next short-story collection, Vile Affections, due out from Subterranean Press either late this year or early in 2022 (I cannot remember). It was kinda momentous, writing this introduction, as it is the first time I've written an introduction for one of my collections since 2010, when I struggled with (and finally completed) the intro for Two Worlds and In Between. So, that's more than a decade between intros, but as this one says, after surviving 2020, I felt sorta obligated. All of the stories are pre-COVID-19.
Last night we watched Christopher Nolan's Tenet (2020). You should know, before I say more, that I adore Christopher Nolan. And yet, having said that, I'm really not sure what I think of Tenet. I noted on IMDb that it has a rating of only 7.4, while Inception (2010; my second favorite Nolan film after Dunkirk) has a rating of 8.8, which sorta reflects my own reaction - though I would say, personally, that Inception is a solid 9. Frankly, I suspect that Tenet might be one of those films - like The Fifth Element and Mad Max: Fury Road - I discover like a lot more the second time around, once my mind is cleared of expectations that got in the way. But maybe not. I was not impressed with John David Washington, though Robert Pattinson almost made up for it. The script was so-so. Kenneth Branagh's role was so oddly Bond villain that it seemed to have wandered in from a different movie. I was not crazy about Ludwig Göransson's score. The science and the science fiction were cool, but the story was labyrinthine even for Nolan, and there's a point at which a maze just starts to bore. So...yeah. I was really looking forward to Tenet, and I owe it at least one more viewing, because it might only have been me. But maybe not.
Oh, and we watched two more episodes of The Nevers. Episode Two was not much better than the pilot, but then Joss Whedon got out of the way and there was a different writer and different director for Episode Three, and suddenly the show felt like something. I'm not saying it's very good. I'm just saying it seems to be getting better.
I finished reading Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness today, and it was a good novel, yes, but I think it was likely a far more powerful novel when it was published in 1969. Next, I'm reading The Lathe of Heaven.
Later Taters,
Aunt Beast
6:05 p.m.