blessingx

Okay, now mid-way through Too Old To Die Young (Prime). THIS IS SOMETHING SPECIAL. Is it meandering, indulgent, and too violent? Yep. Can I sell it to you as great? I'm still not sure. But if you can put up with its vices, do the practically exhausting work to meet halfway, and float on its language and tension, it's an exciting ride to watch an artist create (and only one will take you here). Like movies (which each of these 60-90 minute structured episodes pretty much are), television is such a collaborative medium, it's exciting to see an actual personality surface. Many critics have issues with this series. I don't blame them. I also don't think there are many television achievements this grand, even in this new golden age we're in. It's pretty dark though. Be prepared.

A couple more from the M240 combo above (with Richard Serra sculpture). Then a couple treatment experiments from the Sigma sd Quattro H (with 50 Art). Assuming these are being viewed on phone so finished in Snapseed.

Anyone watching Nicolas Winding Refn’s Too Old To Die Young on Amazon Prime? I’ve only seen the pilot so far, but it’s very [surprise] Nicolas Winding Refn. You know, good or bad, it’s some endpoint. Probably best to watch late into the night, after a couple glasses or other poisons. Prepare to move slow.

If anyone ever gets a link to this please share. Russian TV to air its own patriotic retelling of Chernobyl story “Russian state TV is set to air its own drama about the deadly 1986 Chernobyl disaster – but unlike the HBO series, which has transfixed viewers around the world, this version will claim that a CIA spy was present for the worst nuclear accident in history.”

Speaking of Acros (first)... well, an Alien Skin simulation for Fuji users applied to a Leica DNG... still struggling a little with the M240 output, but love shooting with it. Here with a Voigtländer 35 f/1.7 Ultron. Finished in Snapseed for viewing on phone. No child was injured in the taking of these photos.

For those shooting film, Acros is back. Also I'm gonna fall asleep to Ted's voice again. Yeah, man.

A collection of videos of this cover band because the below graphic made me sad so many different ways.

^ Wow. Enjoy the music while it lasts. We Won't Be Listening To Music in a Decade According To Vinod Khosla "Custom song equivalents" sounds a bit like "processed cheese food."

Was it our sweaty look or have others previously complained? This sentence an hour ago... “Welcome to Olema House we don’t have air conditioning thank you for choosing us would you like a warm chocolate chip cookie?”

I wasn't aware this existed. Linking in case you weren't also. There's a weekly sister HBO Chernobyl podcast. As the show was about truth and some compromises had to done in the mini-series around facts, this is to explain those choices. It's actually more interesting that just that.

Magnum’s Square Print Sale is on for the next few days. Shows up a couple times a year and good to check out if you like the Magnum photographers. I picked up a couple prints the last two rounds. https://shop.magnumphotos.com/

Working backwards.

Prepping for the new Scorsese doc.

Hell Blues Choir: Greetings From Hell (The Tom Waits Songbook)

Starting off a sunny Saturday morning right.

Now it seems like I’m obsessing, but Phoebe Waller-Bridge was just brought in to spice up the next Bond film script. “There’s been a lot of talk about whether or not [the Bond franchise] is relevant now because of who he is and the way he treats women,” she says. “I think that’s bollocks. I think he’s absolutely relevant now. It has just got to grow. It has just got to evolve, and the important thing is that the film treats the women properly. He doesn’t have to. He needs to be true to this character.”

I can't remember missing TV characters so much at the end of a run in probably a decade, and likely never in a mere twelve episodes. That Fleabag-Claire relationship was magic.

Yeah, the series was really something. This though just appeared in the New Yorker and worth a read... https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-hbos-chernobyl-got-right-and-what-it-got-terribly-wrong

If growing up in certain parts of the country and you liked cooling off on hot summer days with ice cream at a Friendly’s, you should know its co-founder, Curtis Blake, just died at 102 (his brother, the other co-founder, is still going at 104). Ice cream diet here I come. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/obituaries/curtis-blake-dies.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

A depressing article titled How Many Bones Would You Break to Get Laid?

Strangely Daphne, which just picked up a couple awards at Cannes, is being referred to as “Fleabag without all the jokes.” Not exactly sure what that is, but...

It also made me think quite a bit about Fukushima (although more limited in scope). More than a few similarities makes one wonder how far we’ve come (when things go really, unexpectedly bad). Also... https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/507277779/chernobyl-exclusion-zone/

HBO’s Chernobyl. Not fun times.

I think she worked on the second season of Fleabag and the first of Killing Eve at the same time. I thought I was busy. Like many shows, Fleabag is getting a cultural translation. Kind of. A French faithful adaptation. I know I'm being naive, and this is likely just about native positioning and cash, but have you heard of stranger, lighter, justification for adapting? It's even the same song!

Don’t forget the doc 30th Century Man. It’s on Prime.