"The Menu" (2022)

 

This post has spoilers for the movie "The Menu" (2022).

"The Menu" (2022) is not a perfect movie but it had more than a few elements that appealed to me. My expectations were low; the movie surprised me.

I liked the idea that cooking should be about love, and what "the chef" loved most of all was to make good cheeseburgers. And in a sense, the movie had a riddle and the riddle was what could penetrate this cold heart. I liked the premise that the world is made of two classes, a privileged elite and the slaves/workers who serve them. I liked the idea that even one of the best rewarded slaves resented being made a whore instead of doing what he did for love. A fallen romantic, you see. I liked that while (most) everyone dies, you die by class: the workers meet one fate, the rich another. And so it was important to know who the young woman was in order to determine which group she belongs in. Ah, a hooker with a heart of gold, then you deserve to die with the workers. I liked the idea that the assistant sous chef attacked our heroine saying (approximately) "I am not going to be replaced! I did not forget the barrel!" I liked the s'mores. I liked the conceit of the cheeseburger as an unpretentious gift of love. I liked the practical fluid dynamics on the fatal neck wound of the betrayed assistant. I like any movie with catfights, and this movie definitely has a catfight. So all in all, not a brilliant movie, but certainly a movie worth seeing.

Notes on Civil Justice and CNN

Obviously there is nothing in civil justice that has the slightest impact on Trump's criminal and psychopathic behavior. He turned around from being convicted for "sexual abuse", but we know that really means rape without overt penetration by his slimy little penis, and on public television attacked and demeaned this rape victim again. He will deflect, delay, and deny as always. The worse that happens is that he pays $5M. Which he can easily steal from his supporters by lying to them, as he has so often over the last 5-7 years.  Not quite a complete waste of time, but not sufficient to affect the maniac's attempt to seize power and destroy the country.  The lesson is that it has to be a criminal indictment and he has to go to jail. 

CNN knew exactly what they were doing when they put Trump on air for their so-called "town hall" with nothing but his supporters in the audience. They knew what he would say and he said them. He verbally abused the woman he had sexually attacked, he all but confessed other crimes, he repeated his lies, he was given an hour of air time in a major national market. CNN is culpable in his obstruction of justice and his attempt to destroy this country and install a fascist government. There are no principles of free speech at stake here. Nothing keeps him from buying an hour of airtime. (Good luck calculating what that would cost).

The supreme court and various appeals courts are a joke having been destroyed by the Republicans. Term limits or some other remedy are required.  God knows Thomas won't resign without being forced. The Dems should have raised the debt limit when they had the ability to do so. This situation is essentially their fault as they allowed the Republicans to hold the country hostage. I guess they were trying to be bipartisan. Sorry, sarcasm.

Its too late to put him in jail, I doubt the feds will even try.

I certainly am not a fan of CNN.

I realize that nothing I say here is the least bit original, nor will it have the slightest impact.  I write these posts to blow off steam and because it helps me remember what I thought at the time the post was written.

On the Road to Fascism 05/09/2023

I write about the things in this post not because I think I can solve any of the problems, or say anything the least bit interesting that hasnt been said before on these topics.  I write these posts to help me remember some of the outrages we are exposed to because it is so easy to forget, being bombarded as we are by injustice and stupidity on a near-daily basis.

 

Here is just a sample of what has been happening recently.

 

1. Jordan Neely is murdered for the crime of talking to himself on a subway.  I talk to myself, and if I was in NY where there is a subway, I might talk to myself there too.  Would I be murdered?  Daniel Penny, the white man who murdered Jordan, is free and walking around. 

 

2. The Supreme Court is so deeply fucked up and illegitimate that it almost seems cruel to even mention it.  But yes, the corruption of Clarence Thomas has gone on long enough.  Roberts or someone needs to act.

 

3. The Republicans, who dont want to actually support the constitution which created a method for controlling appropriations, are dead set on destroying this country through the debt limit nonsense.  On the one hand, Biden is right to  stand firm, but wait.  Why didnt the Democrats change the debt limit when they controlled both houses of congress and the White House?  Maybe the Democrats are incompetent. At least they are not consciously evil, but that is about all I can say in their favor.

Would any other country be better?  Well, maybe, I dont know.  But I do know that if I were living in another country and bad things like this happened I would not feel betrayed because I would not have had to listen to the self-servicing, self-congratulatory, BS that I was exposed to here, in America, where people think they are the only country with a legitimate government.

I wonder if this is one of the posts that the Internet censors will use to block this blog?

The supreme court back in the day when it had legitimacy.

 

More Rendering Tests II

Some random tests.   Tests to create complexity from simple procedural forms and working in the area of classical expressiveness (gestural rendering).  The process of doing computer graphics without clients (or where you are your own client) is so different and so much more rewarding.

ADD/ADHD Article in The Atlantic and Medical Malfeasance

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The Atlantic has an interesting article about Adderall and ADD/ADHD in which it reveals that the medical community failed to even recognize adult ADD or take it seriously as a disease until 20 years ago, if that. And of course Adderall may be over prescribed today as a result, or is it?  After all, amphetamine is a recognized human performance drug with some well known side effects, why shouldn't people be using it whether or not they have ADD?  

As the article makes clear, the medical community is guilty of gross malfeasance in this area, and I think it is very reasonable to resent being required to go to these wankers as one gateway of many to get the most important known medication available for this disease/syndrome/whatever.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2023/04/adult-adhd-diagnosis-treatment-adderall-shortage/673719/

 

 

Genocide in Ukraine

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There doesnt seem to be any doubt that some sort of ethnic cleansing is going on in Ukraine.  Maybe it will be necessary for the United Nations and/or NATO to take action.  Europe did not stop the genocide against the Jews and others, nor is it totally clear that they could have done much in the 1938-1945 period.  But that was then and this is now and we have options today we did not have then.  No one wants war with Russia but ultimately you have to make a stand and there has been ample provocation.  Is this the start of WW 3 or 4? I think it might be.  Again, what are your principles, what do you really stand for?   

 

By the way, the ISW, quoted below, has demonstrated that they are a reliable source of information.  All of their analysis is based on open source intelligence.  They are not using any secret intelligence.  

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, April 26, 2023

Apr 26, 2023 - Press ISW

Russia appears to be continuing a deliberate depopulation campaign in occupied areas of Ukraine in order to facilitate the repopulation of Ukrainian territories with Russians. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar stated on April 26 that Russia is trying to change the ethnic composition of Ukraine by actively conducting a large-scale resettlement of people mainly from poorer and remote regions of Russia into Ukraine. Malyar noted that the most intensive efforts are ongoing in occupied Luhansk Oblast and remarked that Russia is also deporting Ukrainians and forcibly resettling them in Russia. ISW previously reported on specific instances of Russian authorities overseeing the depopulation and repopulation of areas of occupied Ukraine, particularly in occupied Kherson Oblast over the course of 2022. Ukrainian sources remarked in October 2022 that Russian authorities in then-occupied parts of Kherson Oblast deported large groups of Ukrainian residents to Russia under the guise of humanitarian evacuations and then repopulated their homes with Russian soldiers. Russia may hope to import Russians to fill depopulated areas of Ukraine in order to further integrate occupied areas into Russian socially, administratively, politically, and economically, thereby complicating conditions for the reintegration of these territories into Ukraine. ISW has previously assessed that such depopulation and repopulation campaigns may amount to a deliberate ethnic cleansing effort and apparent violation of the Geneva Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

A Preface to the Online Draft

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Lets say I was writing some sort of "book", as distinguished from a blog, and this so-called book might be "published" one day, perhaps in a more classical form.  For a variety of reasons there are times when writing in blog format has turned out to be very useful in a mechanical way.  It lets me get ideas out there, forces me to edit them, and then abandon them.  In other forms of writing, I dont get to do that. Instead I mess with them, editing endlessly and then give up.   So, for part of this project, I will write little sections and post them on this blog.  There is no guarantee that any particular post will make sense out of context, or be incorporated into the final, and so forth and so on, and you are therefore warned. 

A Crypt of My Own

How I dream of that basement, that attic, that crypt where I can live serene, diligent, with my computers, untriggered.   How happy I would be.

On the Street Where You Live but in Vegas with Showgirls

There are many nice touches in the Paramount series The Offer.  How much of it is true is another matter that is above my pay grade. In one episode, Al Ruddy flies to Las Vegas to recruit Vic Damone to play the role of the fictional Frank Sinatra-like character for the Godfather.  Ultimately although Damone was offered the role he chose not to play it for fear of pissing off Sinatra.

As part of this sequence we are all comped into a show with Damone as the headlining act and we are treated to an unforgettable rendition of "On the Street Where You Live" which is from the musical My Fair Lady.   In the original stage production and movie of Lady, the young swain belts out his love song in Victorian dress in England and he is so sincere.  

 

But in The Offer, we are on stage in Vegas with Showgirls.  It is also sincere!  And authentic.  It captures the essence of Las Vegas and our culture.

Tempus Fugit

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This blog was started as an act of faith and in the hope that certain long-standing goals could be achieved. To my surprise, quite a few of them were.  Not all, but many. 

On the positive side, I can not emphasize enough how much it helps with the chronology of events in my life and the world.  Time flies whether or not you are having fun.