Tweets for June 28, 2016

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Movies Watched -- Dope

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115 minute running time so at least 15 minutes too long, and probably closer to 25 minutes too long. I watched 40 minutes then quit. It's a mish mash of things: comedy, crime drama, romance, but none of it works. Maybe it's too black or too young for me to get, but it didn't work for me. Similar to Dear White People in that way. There are some funny bits, but then combining them with the real horror and violence of living in the 'hood just doesn't fly. Red rating, avoid. 

Asking Zoë Kravitz  to the prom.

Asking Zoë Kravitz  to the prom.

ETF Trading Portfolio Update -- July 5, 2016

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Taking a massive loss in the Emerging Markets ... getting badly whipsawed after changes made following "Brexit" ... look at the inverse VIX since last Monday, yeah, people are getting destroyed out there. We'll see how bad the losses in the Q's and the Euro are when I finally take them. 

Movies Watched -- '71

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100 minute running time, so just the right length. Starred the kid who starred in Starred Up (my favorite movie from 2014), except in this movie he didn't have much dialogue, he just cowers and grimaces (see screenshot below). Story is about a British soldier who gets left behind on the mean streets of Belfast (in 1971) after a house raid goes awry. Non-stop action, tension, a kind of nightmare dreamscape ... the movie was structured well, but for some reason I couldn't get into it even though I couldn't take my eyes away from it. I certainly didn't fast forward, so it gets a yellow rating. You have to turn on the subtitles for this one, as you did with Starred Up. 

Maybe it's because the idea of a Catholic/Protestant divide leading to terrible violence just strikes me as absurd, and the double-dealing of the British army is kind of awful, but not unexpected ("this is war"). It's early days, but I still haven't found a movie from 2015 that I can recommend.  (EDIT: Mad Max: Fury Road is one I definitely recommend.)

Cowering, again

Cowering, again

Movies Watched -- Spring

Added on by C. Maoxian.

109 minute running time so at least 10 to 20 minutes too long. Weird one. It's a combination comedy / horror / romance movie. Structure of it is bizarre, not well laid out. Noted blogger Jason Kottke gets in a bar fight and runs away to Italy to avoid the police, using the inheritance from his recently deceased mother. There he meets an exotic girl who is not all she seems. True love conquers all.

I assume it's a W.D. By movie, some smarty-pants trust fund kids behind it, maybe. Didn't fast forward so it gets a yellow rating. Also gets points for being filmed in a lovely Italian town on the Adriatic Sea. But I can't recommend this. 

Blogger Kottke with his multilingual Medusa

Blogger Kottke with his multilingual Medusa

Movies Watched -- We Are Still Here

Added on by C. Maoxian.

83 minute running time, so the right length, but I quit after 20 minutes since it was no good, even in fast forward mode, anyone can see that it's no good. It's a horror movie but relies too much on the scary music cues to shock, the story is badly laid out, badly paced. Better if it had starred the dirt-floor cellar in the old house in which I grew up.  This is a W.D. By movie, and a bad one. 

Why this was on the Rotten Tomatoes Top 100 list with a 95% rating is a mystery -- actually, I know why, 43 reviews with only nine "top critics" weighing in, which means idiot bloggers and other kids have skewed the data once again.  This idiot blogger is doing you a favor by issuing a red rating, avoid, do not waste your time.

Resident of dirt-floor cellar

Resident of dirt-floor cellar

Tesaro No Dummy

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Just a view of "unusual suspect" Tesaro, regular hours open at $68.78, some notes only comprehensible to me and my trading buddies.

Click to enlarge

Cigar Report -- H. Upmann The Banker: Currency

Added on by C. Maoxian.

H. Upmann has a series of cigars they call "The Banker," which I thought was kind of a cynical marketing ploy -- an attempt to appeal to idiots who work in finance. They have different names for the different sizes: Arbitrage (7 x 56), Basis Point (6 1/8 X 54), Annuity (6 x 52), and Currency (5 1/2 x 48). I got the Robusto since that's the size smoke I prefer. 

Smelled like honey, which was promising! Lit it in a lot of wind with a dying lighter but it was very forgiving. The draw was good and burn even. It took about an inch to mellow which is typical of good-but-not-great cigars, and I spent 50 minutes on it start to finish, which is exactly the amount of time I like to spend.  So despite the gimmicky name, it's not a bad cigar at all, it was quite pleasant, I'd smoke it again, unlike the Juan Lopez, which I am slowly but steadily giving away to the lawn guys. 

Tweets for June 27, 2016

Added on by C. Maoxian.