test please delete

[NickFitz]

Tonight's opening feature was Searching (2018), in which a bloke's daughter goes missing, hence the search. The conceit is that the entire film is views of the desktops of computers, from the old family Windows XP PC to his daughter's MacBook: literally everything is a view of a desktop or part thereof.

So we only see the characters in real time when they're using FaceTime and are therefore on the Mac's or iPhone's screen, or video conferencing on what seems to be some version of Linux on a work PC (they live in Silicon Valley), or in news footage playing on a website, or on a home CCTV system accessed on a laptop, or whatever. The key to the mystery lies in his daughter's social media accounts so we see him delving through those, and doing Google searches, and all that kind of thing. It's remarkably cleverly done, IMHO, and well worth a watch

I also watched a bonus feature a few minutes long in which they revealed some of the Easter eggs they've hidden in there; there are loads of them (they reckon five times as many as they reveal, making about sixty, or seventy-two if they meant in addition) from simple stuff like crew members' names buried in some list on a screen, to an entirely different and unrelated story revealed, as the film progresses, through headlines in the sidebars of various news websites

Clever stuff

And to follow: Rampage (2018), featuring an exceptionally fine and mighty ape called George, and some humans.

This one requires all the Willing Suspension of Disbelief you can summon, but it's worth making the effort because it's tremendous fun even if every single second is utterly preposterous

And then a bit more of The West Wing ploughed through.

Goodnight all

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Endlessly grey with added grey to make the grey greyer.

Warmish.

16.6 in the living room, with the laundry room at 13, with a min of 9 deg.

Damp.

Very damp.

Dank.

Drizzly.

Dire.

Depressing.

I think it's Saturday but I'll have to check.

Hopefully Mr Fitz has remembered to put the bins out.

[xoggoth]

Got a completely unused 2018 diary. Free if anyone here is "living in the past"

[WTFH]

Morning all (the second wave was from the sea) it’s fairly mild here as we amble along the beach.

[DaveB]

Morning.

Endlessly grey with added grey to make the grey greyer.

Warmish.

16.6 in the living room, with the laundry room at 13, with a min of 9 deg.

Damp.

Very damp.

Dank.

Drizzly.

Dire.

Depressing.

I think it's Saturday but I'll have to check.

Hopefully Mr Fitz has remembered to put the bins out.

[DoctorStrangelove]

I've eaten all the chocolate biscuits and the box of Milk Tray.

I'm going to hide the shortbread since a) I don't much like it really and b) I'm getting fat enough anyway.

Still have a third of an M&S xmas pud, some brandy sauce, some brandy butter, and a third of an M&S Xmas cake to go.

[Scruff]

Praia do Norte.

Warm, flat, calm.

No guru, no method, no teacher...

[NickFitz]

Afternoon denizens

Very mild here today at 12°C, though rather cloudy with it

[DoctorStrangelove]

"Tom Cruise is great in this film" was the motivation for renting this endurance test.

Well he wasn't, as he seldom is.

Nor was anyone else in this acting workshop.

Robert Altman bored cinema goers years before with short cuts so why did anyone feel Magnolia was needed.

Some LA based ensemble efforts are OK, Crash, Grand Canyan even (ok some punchable characters there too.)

I must have checked on my 4 year old son 6 times during this movie evening because he kept waking up due to a cold, after the 2nd time I didn't even bother putting it on pause, I started to think about bleeding the radiators before the frog scene happened-I was gob smacked by the pretentiousness of the symbolism; which in itself is a pretentious thing to write, you see the effect it's had.

Antique Cream is what we painted the living with i.e Magnolia.

Doesn't say anything about Gladiator films though.

Afternoon denizens

Very mild here today at 12°C, though rather cloudy with it

So, did the bins go out?

PT Anderson has single handedly set back directors rights 25 years with this bloated, self indulgent pile of manure.

Studio's will now go back to hacking up directors work because they will have this shining example as to why.

Come back Michael Cimino, all is forgiven.

The longest three and a half hours of your life will be wasted if you can manage to stay awake through this.

I think "Heaven's Gate" is a masterpiece compared to this crap.

Fast & Furious 7 (2015) - IMDb

Is the current epic.

Which, it appears, I've seen before.

Must have recorded it off the tv coz I can't (so far) find a dvd.

Today's 2nd feature is "White House Down" being someone who's not Gerard Butler saving POTUS from the scumbags.

White House Down (2013) - IMDb

Now that I really enjoyed.

[NickFitz]

So, did the bins go out?

Yes, and back in again

I'm currently listening to Like A Rolling Stone recorded live in Copenhagen on May 1 1966, while I rip all 36 CDs of the Dylan 1966 Live Recordings. This set contains every extant recording from the world tour that year, be it from the soundboard, a smuggled-in tape recorder, a TV station, an official recording by CBS, or from the film crew that was present on the tour. It's interesting to see how the performances of individual songs progressed, though they're giving LARS a hell of a lot of welly even before the tumultuous reception they started getting off some audience members when they arrived in the UK, leading up to the famous "Judas!" incident

And with that, it's on to disk 5: Dublin, May 5 1966