Three for the Memories Starting Soon!
1) As we're just over 2 weeks out from launch, a reminder that 
threeforthememories kicks off on January 3. Its purpose is to share photos that each member has taken during the prior year. This might be the 3 photos that they feel best encapsulate their year, or are simply the ones they most wish to share by whichever criteria they choose. Anyone can participate by just joining the community, so if you were thinking of taking part please do follow it. Also, if you can offer any suggestions for places to promote the community, let me know!
2) We watched the new Meryl Streep-Stephen Soderbergh film, Let Them All Talk, on HBO Max. A 2020 film that went direct to streaming, the cast and set up sounded great. It wasn't a bad view, I did like its slow, quiet pace, and its minor mysteries. Mostly though, I missed cruising terribly. (As was said in the film though, their particular trip was "a crossing" and not a cruise, which is true enough, but tourist life aboard ship was close enough). I don't think it's a must see but I enjoyed it well enough.
One thing that stood out to me was the nephew's role and an exchange he had with Dianne Wiest. He's fascinated by how three women could be friends for 50 years when his own generation seems to have such fleeting connections with one another, something he sees as technology related. She assures him that people are still people, even if the trappings are different.
But neither premise is entirely true. These women don't seem to have kept up their friendship at all, and have very little in common. That they are still willing to be together 50 years later is one thing, but there are hidden agendas for that reunion. And humanity as a whole has changed little over millennia but people do change as they age. One thing that stands out about the nephew is how open he is with people, and how kind, affectionate, and naïve. The women, by sharp contrast, are not. Wiest is probably the closest in that respect, but her references to her younger self suggest that there's still a split between who she was and now is. But her character is poorly developed and seems to exist more to be a mediating force between Streep and Bergen than because anything changes for her.
We also watched Ava on Netflix which was ok. I was intrigued by a movie starring Jessica Chastain where she played an assassin, and it had a good cast. It had a number of good action scenes but there wasn't a lot else to the film. I'd say John Malkovich didn't expect to be doing that level of fight scenes at his age but Harrisson Ford is 9 years older and about to do another Indiana Jones movie, so...
3) As countries and companies invested in oil start losing business steadily, the environmental disasters going on in Venezuela may start being seen in a lot of places. Cost cutting and abandonment can result in a lot of damage when a toxic product is in play.
4) Leonard Roberts, who was on Buffy S4, shares his negative experience on Heroes and how and why his character got written off.
5) Not that tabloids are, strictly speaking, news outlets, but their goals and methods give all journalists a bad name since one can't argue they're not doing original reporting. Meanwhile another post makes a case for why news organizations should defund their crime reporting given its negative impact. Lastly, a scathing discussion from reporters about the kinds of newsrooms they dealt with that reveals how much of the media's problems are inherent in their business models and the way they're run.
View poll: Kudos Footer-242
Comments at Dreamwidth
.
threeforthememories kicks off on January 3. Its purpose is to share photos that each member has taken during the prior year. This might be the 3 photos that they feel best encapsulate their year, or are simply the ones they most wish to share by whichever criteria they choose. Anyone can participate by just joining the community, so if you were thinking of taking part please do follow it. Also, if you can offer any suggestions for places to promote the community, let me know!
2) We watched the new Meryl Streep-Stephen Soderbergh film, Let Them All Talk, on HBO Max. A 2020 film that went direct to streaming, the cast and set up sounded great. It wasn't a bad view, I did like its slow, quiet pace, and its minor mysteries. Mostly though, I missed cruising terribly. (As was said in the film though, their particular trip was "a crossing" and not a cruise, which is true enough, but tourist life aboard ship was close enough). I don't think it's a must see but I enjoyed it well enough.
One thing that stood out to me was the nephew's role and an exchange he had with Dianne Wiest. He's fascinated by how three women could be friends for 50 years when his own generation seems to have such fleeting connections with one another, something he sees as technology related. She assures him that people are still people, even if the trappings are different.
But neither premise is entirely true. These women don't seem to have kept up their friendship at all, and have very little in common. That they are still willing to be together 50 years later is one thing, but there are hidden agendas for that reunion. And humanity as a whole has changed little over millennia but people do change as they age. One thing that stands out about the nephew is how open he is with people, and how kind, affectionate, and naïve. The women, by sharp contrast, are not. Wiest is probably the closest in that respect, but her references to her younger self suggest that there's still a split between who she was and now is. But her character is poorly developed and seems to exist more to be a mediating force between Streep and Bergen than because anything changes for her.
We also watched Ava on Netflix which was ok. I was intrigued by a movie starring Jessica Chastain where she played an assassin, and it had a good cast. It had a number of good action scenes but there wasn't a lot else to the film. I'd say John Malkovich didn't expect to be doing that level of fight scenes at his age but Harrisson Ford is 9 years older and about to do another Indiana Jones movie, so...
3) As countries and companies invested in oil start losing business steadily, the environmental disasters going on in Venezuela may start being seen in a lot of places. Cost cutting and abandonment can result in a lot of damage when a toxic product is in play.
4) Leonard Roberts, who was on Buffy S4, shares his negative experience on Heroes and how and why his character got written off.
5) Not that tabloids are, strictly speaking, news outlets, but their goals and methods give all journalists a bad name since one can't argue they're not doing original reporting. Meanwhile another post makes a case for why news organizations should defund their crime reporting given its negative impact. Lastly, a scathing discussion from reporters about the kinds of newsrooms they dealt with that reveals how much of the media's problems are inherent in their business models and the way they're run.
View poll: Kudos Footer-242
Comments at Dreamwidth
.