Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
thoroughly enjoyed this one. very entertaining and right up my alley due to my love of this old stuff- arcade games, consoles, d&d, RUSH, etc… (or I’m in that demographic)
Let me preface this by saying that I’m still working on recovering all the old posts from the wayback machine. I can’t find the one post that explains the 3DMT in depth. 3DMT = 3 Day Movie Test ™. Basically it means I need to sit on my opinions about movies for a while before I make a final judgement.
And with the 3DMT there are some holes in the theory that people have pointed out. Eg ‘if you’re thinking about a movie for that long, doesn’t that make it worthwhile in itself?’ etc… But it’s still the Uncle Kenny way of ratings.
Why did I see Baby Driver in the first place? I really like Guillermo del Toro. I follow him on Twitter. When Baby Driver came out he unloaded a long set of tweets RAVING about the movie and Edgar Wright (the director, his buddy). So I immediately thought- okay, I’ll go see it on that recommendation alone. [direct link to Twitter raves].
We went, and we thought it was entertaining. I liked all the actors in it. I liked 90% of the story. I liked the cameos (Paul Williams!). And I liked the music.
But after chewing on it for a while I came to the conclusion that the film was too in love with itself. It’s too self-referential with the references and the music. And something I didn’t think about for a while was that the female characters in it are really really poorly thought out (see below).
GDT did tweet that
The key to understanding it fully- at least for me- is in the fact that it is a fable, complete with its very own Disney prince and princess, but it is also rock n’ roll. Meaning- the magic exists in a dirty, genre-tainted world. The film is incredibly precise. Flawlessly executed to its smallest detail: breathtaking Russian arm shots, real-world car mount and foot chases executed with the vigour and bravado of a Gene Kelly musical.This is An American In Paris on wheels and crack smoke. Its a movie in love with cinema – the high of cinema and motion.
And I see his point about looking at it as a fable. He’s correct in that it helps- but I shouldn’t have to tell you before you go see it to think of it as a fable. Because if you didn’t know that – you know what you’re going to think the movie is? A late night getaway/heist movie combined with a music video. It’s like a low-rent La La Land meets Getaway.
Again, I did think it was entertaining, and I liked all the actors and I find myself listening to the music from the soundtrack periodically- but you can skip it until DVD.
Looking back in a few months or years I’ll probably think this is a harsh review, but maybe if I had seen it without reading about del Toro raving about it first I wouldn’t have been so dismissive.
https://twitter.com/gabydunn/status/879917803326722048
https://twitter.com/gabydunn/status/879919466737356800
At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails by Sarah Bakewell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
An engaging read. Bakewell helps paint the picture of how the philosophers were living at the time they came up with their theories and essays and works. The how helps with the why. I wish we had gone over more of this background when I was in college. At most we had quick snapshots of what the thinkers were doing at times in their lives. Bakewell’s book helps connect the dots for me.
I’d recommend the book if you’re in to the subject matter.
Happy 4th of July everyone. Here are some links for you to check out if you’re so inclined:
One of my favorite authors, Don Winslow, has a new book out. I haven’t read it yet, but he’s doing pressers. He stopped in to do Brian Koppelman’s podcast here. It’s worth a listen.
And Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast is back for another “season”. I’ve just started listening again. The first episode here talks about golf and taxes in an interesting way. Of course I liked the way he brings up Theseus’s Paradox.
I saw some viral marketing for a new online TV service. I was intrigued because they said they’d be showing bike races that I try to follow. It’s hard to buy the rights for those races and get them organized (listen to a podcast of Speedmetal Cycling and they’ll go into it more), so I was impressed. I’m always looking for an excuse to cut the cord and get closer every year.
But then I noticed on Steephill.tv’s page that there’s a wrinkle with the new one I saw (Fubo.tv), in particular related to bundling:
Not all big U.S. media companies are ready to fully embrace the ala-carte nature of online streaming and therefore you’ll notice that all OTT services such as fubo.tv, sling.tv and youtube.tv will have a core bundle of channels which represents the minium service package. In particular, fubo.tv’s network agreements with FOX and NBC prevent them from offering a cycling only package. Any package fubo.tv adds in the U.S. will require the core bundle of channels to be purchased as well. This is the reason for the price increase to watch the Giro d’Italia.
(Emphasis is SteephillTV’s)
TV’s a rough business. But this bundling stuff is why Netflix, Amazon, and the various sports leagues will keep eroding ‘big tv”s viewers more and more (Apple too). Cable companies/media providers/channels need to get with it.