"RedRum"
Samsung Galaxy 8+
Snapseed
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I just viewed the film "The Whale" with Brendan Fraser. Great movie. It covers all the major points about the slow-rolling suicide that is abusive eating - lack of mobility - physical pain - precarious health - shame - food as a coping sedative - food as celebratory reward - the absolute and self-righteous disgust that slenders have for fat people - the hopelessness - the isolation. It's also a movie about compassion, generosity, and tenderness. Brendan Fraser is so very good in this movie. It took me a while to get around to watch "The Whale." It always felt too close to the bone. For instance, my dead dog Tie, who speaks to me every day, has called me "The Whale" and Fat Boy for years now. Tie reminds me quite a few times a week that he never (ever) had a "weight problem" and that he had a very trim stomach his entire life. He always says that I could be like him if I had an ounce of virtue or willpower.. And so - I put off seeing the film since it seemed like it would be rubbing my face in a lifetime of failure.. It wasn't like that though.. It was, in an unexpected way, a vindicating experience - to see what I see every day rendered with such dead-on-balls-accuracy.. ~ |
"The Banshees of Inisherin" is a movie on Netflix. It is a beautifully acted film about the inevitable results of dealing with others out of an angry mind: “By doing this you are like a man who wants to hit another and picks up a burning ember or excrement in his hand and so first burns himself or makes himself stink.” At times very (very) funny, at times very (very) dark, "The Banshees of Inisherin" was a film that reminded me of my family of origin - especially of Dear Old Da - who invested so much energy into shunning when he felt upended by his children. His life's example, his decades-long teachings on conditional love, are things I still need to guard against in my own behavior even all these years later. ~ |
Yesterday I went for a walk with a friend of mine in his town's graveyard. Just two old dudes strolling around the dead, occasionally stopping to take pictures.. Passing one very impressive burial vault, he asked me if I had my own carcass disposal process and final resting spot picked out. I said "Why yes, yes I do. I want to be burned up and then have whatever remains dumped into the ocean at low tide. No marker. No urn. No perpetual care contract. No nuttin'. As an example - I'd like something like Donny had (below). A Folger's can would be spot-on. And - if a fight could break out as well - that would be an added bonus... but not strictly necessary.
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Well all the time you spend tryin'
to get back what's been took from you,
more is goin' out the door; after a while,
you just have to try to get a tourniquet on it.
~ Cousin Ellis - No Country For Old Men ~
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A pretty film about one year in a Japanese monastery.
Not for lovers of fast-paced action films with thumping soundtracks..
Great Dharma quotes from Kodo Sawaki Roshi..
Rentable on Amazon Prime.
Email subscribers can see the trailer here.
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Baseline Test - Blade Runner 2049 Interrogator: What's it like to hold the hand of someone you love? K: Interlinked. Interrogator: Do they teach you how to feel finger to finger? K: Interlinked. Interrogator: Do you long for having your heart interlinked? K: Interlinked. Interrogator: Do you dream about being interlinked? Interrogator: Have they left a place for you where you can dream? K: Interlinked. Interrogator: What's it like to hold your child in your arms? K: Interlinked. Interrogator: What's it like to play with your dog? K: Interlinked. Interrogator: Do you feel that there's a part of you that's missing? K: Interlinked. Interrogator: Do you like to connect to things? K: Interlinked. Interrogator: What happens when that linkage is broken? K: Interlinked. Interrogator: Have they let you feel heartbreak? K: Interlinked. Interrogator: Did you buy a present for the person you love? K: Within cells interlinked. Interrogator: Why don't you say that three times? K: Within cells interlinked. K: Within cells interlinked. K: Within cells interlinked. Interrogator: Where do you go when you go within? K: Within. (Text from Shane Kilkelly's gist on github)
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Ray: Everything was fine until the grid was shut down by dickless here. Walter Peck: They caused an explosion! Mayor: Is this true? Peter: Yes sir, it’s true. This man has no dick. "Ghostbusters" - 1984 |
"This country's hard on people. You can't stop what's coming. It ain't all waiting on you. That's vanity." ~ Ellis in "No Country for Old Men" ~ In View of the Fact The people of my time are passing away: my wife is baking for a funeral, a 60-year-old who died suddenly, when the phone rings, and it's Ruth we care so much about in intensive care: it was once weddings that came so thick and fast, and then, first babies, such a hullabaloo: now, it's this that and the other and somebody else gone or on the brink: well, we never thought we would live forever (although we did) and now it looks like we won't: some of us are losing a leg to diabetes, some don't know what they went downstairs for, some know that a hired watchful person is around, some like to touch the cane tip into something steady, so nice: we have already lost so many, brushed the loss of ourselves ourselves: our address books for so long a slow scramble now are palimpsests, scribbles and scratches: our index cards for Christmases, birthdays, Halloweens drop clean away into sympathies: at the same time we are getting used to so many leaving, we are hanging on with a grip to the ones left: we are not giving up on the congestive heart failure or brain tumors, on the nice old men left in empty houses or on the widows who decide to travel a lot: we think the sun may shine someday when we'll drink wine together and think of what used to be: until we die we will remember every single thing, recall every word, love every loss: then we will, as we must, leave it to others to love, love that can grow brighter and deeper till the very end, gaining strength and getting more precious all the way . . . ~ A. R. Ammons ~ |
"Collecting facts is important.
Knowledge is important. But if you don't have an imagination to use the knowledge, civilization is nowhere. Love what you do and do what you love. Don't listen to anyone else who tells you not to do it. You do what you want, what you love. Imagination should be the center of your life. We are the miracle of force and matter making itself over into imagination and will. Incredible. The Life Force experimenting with forms. You for one. Me for another. The Universe has shouted itself alive. We are one of the shouts."
~ Ray Bradbury ~
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Terrence Malick, one of my favorite directors, has a new film being released today "A Hidden Life." It looks beautiful as most Malick movies do. According to the youtube post: "Based on real events, from visionary writer-director Terrence Malick, A HIDDEN LIFE is the story of an unsung hero, Franz Jägerstätter, who refused to fight for the Nazis in World War II. When the Austrian peasant farmer is faced with the threat of execution for treason, it is his unwavering faith and his love for his wife Fani and children that keeps his spirit alive." |