I reckon Cuba is about to go down the tubes.
 

Wild -- Reese Witherspoon shows a lot of range in this flick about struggle. The backpacking made me remember the years I was into backpacking. I wasn't the type to walk in five miles, plop down and set up a tent. From my perspective, it wasn't real backpacking until 10-15 miltes from the trailhead, well past the people wearing sandles and carrying a sack lunch. The sort of journey in Wild is a whole different level of commitment.

short list to see: inherent vice

IMAX 3D HFR -- That's the format I chose for viewing the latest Hobbit. The high frame rate (48 Hz I believe) and lack of film grain give the slow moving parts of the film an "uncinematic look". Since this film seems to be mostly battle scenes, the 48 Hz is welcome. It allows motion to be smoother.

In the first Hobbit, there were some effects that looked clunkier in 48 Hz than 24 Hz. I attribute this to the fact the 24 Hz, by being clunky, hides clunkiness. There was some of this in Hobbit Part the Third in HFR, but not much.

I don't know whether to attribute it to cinematographic choices, or the 3D, but there were a few scenes that felt like I was looking at a miniature, sort of the effect one sees in tilt-shift without being tilt-shift. This was distracting when it happened.

according to my twitter feed tonight is the first night of jewish christmas.

the other one

someone just posted a bunch of these low budget late 70s - early 80s teen sex comedies. im not sure i can resist. this one sounds familiar but i dont recall seeing it.

Binge watched and very much enjoyed season 1 of Transparent An amazon original, the pilot is free and if you sign up for the free one month trial of their prime service, so are the other episodes.

animated introduction to quantum mechanics and other junk.

Uncertain about the uncertainty principle?

should i watch the sure thing or a susan sontag documentary? or maybe the question should be -- will they show daphne zuniga topless on tcm? id better watch to find out.

an oral history of boogie nights.

making an R.M. Felts genuine Southampton country ham from Virginia this holiday season.

Q and A with D A Pennebaker

spent the night babysitting a friend who has come down with a somewhat debilitating case of marital discord. two things we learned: 1) my years of not keeping up with my intergender studies has diminished my capacity to provide useful advice on such matters beyond suggesting they should seek professional guidance. 2) an ashtray full of cigarettes in the morning smells worse than i remember.

on the plus side, we did find a pretty good hole-in-the-wall burger place in the east village.

aged eggnog

Via adman
black bird

this is a word.

El Santo the Mexican masked wrestler movies

The chessboard is really heating up. I'm finding it so interesting to watch Russia maneuver. And, to my eyes, the West flounder. Not saying it's a good thing but just that it's fascinating. Canceling the South Stream pipeline is a gigantic deal that seems to be getting very little attention. Are people hearing about this? I think an actual shooting war with Russia is now a very real possibility. Certainly we are at war in every other way. Yet very little discussion of it that I'm seeing in the media.

moon map

not surprisingly i am not a huge musical fan but i like to check in every now and then. did i watch any of the live peter pan broadcast on nbc last night? no. was i intrigued enough when i heard the tcm pre-movie chatter about good news (1947) to tune in for a few minutes? yes.

as with many mgm musicals, not a lot of there there but still bright and candy colored enough to keep me interested. and now i know who larry gelbarts wife was for the better part of a half century. and also that peter lawford was english. seems like something i must have known, right?

heres a stand-out number from early on despite its "modest" racial insensitivity. its made in 1947 though its set in 1927 although you wouldnt know it from looking at it. the song was nominated for a oscar and it seems notable that none of the stars are anywhere to be seen. also not in this scene but crooning elsewhere, a young mel torme.

definitely a palate cleanser as i had watched this earlier.

 

Los Angeles plays itself