rod boyle

Snow...

And the snow, falling the first day of December and every day since.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

The first day, postings on Facebook of a list of streets to avoid, one watched 3 accidents in 15 minutes, to embark down the hill, steep, 45 degrees, sheer ice, and uncontrolled slide into parked cars, this is the moment a lot of people realize they shouldn't have parked on the hill, they should have put on winter tires, and a hundred other such considerations as the slip-slide uncontrollably down the mountain...

By the second the idiots have largely been culled, now it's just the wintry days and perpetual snow, absolutely beautiful, this town could easily be the setting for a Hallmark Christmas Film.

Details: Category: Blog; Created: 03 December 2023

Red Rock West - 1993

This pretty much completing my "Western Binge" - a neo-noir thriller starring Nicholas Cage, Dennis Hopper, others you'd know from the era.

It was good, of a type reminiscent of David Lynch, the "neo-noir" elements reminding me of Mulholland Drive and other movies of the era, a young and dashing Nicholas Cage, Dennis Hopper as Lyle or hired assassin or pretty much just being himself, an increasingly tangled plot and - rarity of rarity - a rather or somewhat unpredictable ending.

I didn't mind it, but not a "Canon" film, not necessary, no new insights, but that cozy Xmas feeling of familiar celebrity faces.

Details: Category: Film; Created: 03 December 2023

The Searchers - 1956

I did not enjoy this. Not a little bit.

A few notes: First of all - John Wayne couldn't act.

Second of all: John Wayne couldn't act.

I could go on this tangent for a while, but you get the idea.

In the scene with the Cavalry taking the Comanche prisoners if you look close you can spot an automobile driving in the background.

But that's trivial. What's more to the point is that the movie introduces ideas that are genuinely interesting and complex, only to abandon them in the service of an entirely unworthy plot and absolutely banal character development. Politically incorrect in the extreme - how did this even fly then? I mean the scene where "One Who Follows" kicks his newly acquired squaw-bride down the hill, not funny. Not at all. Or the depiction of the Comanche as "children", and the "back story" given to "Scar" - he's on the warpath avenging the death of his sons, or John Wayne's character of an Indian Hating vengeful uncle, the implied horrors of Indian Captivity, the finding of the girl to discover that she wants to continue living with the Comanche - "her people now" - I mean, there were an abundance of morally complex themes that were brought up and then completely ignored. There were the ideas of the greatness - and vastness - of the undiscovered West, the final frontier, yet it was not filmed as such, moments of grandeur - such as when they reach the winter territories - are almost accidental, dialogue, irrelevant and frequently idiotic, characters, stock types every one. I could go on.

SO, for a movie with some reputation I was offended beyond measure, it certainly has a place in the history of American prejudice and bigotry but is more a model of how NOT to make a film.

That said, like James Cameron's "The Titanic", seldom has such a mediocre film so inflamed me. So there's something.

Details: Category: Film; Created: 03 December 2023

More, CGI and AI Driven Nonsense

Meh, every time I take a screenshot of some absurdity to share Facebook thinks I'm loving it and feeds me more.

Maybe I do. These are interesting times, for sure.

Anyways, some more "Dream Homes" and doubtless endangered birds that Facebook wants to use to engage me.

Now, worth noticing, how frequently these posts show up, Sabina Catour (above) if you look at her profile posts every hour.

If she's real.

Which I doubt, I'm more of a mind to believe she's a bot that simply creates Midjourney images and posts them to Facebook, and promote those that do well.

There is no need for any human intervention, merely keep your visitors engaged.

On that note, noticing the title of the AI app - "Midjourney" - and this is where it's going - what, then, in the end, is the destination?