Movies Watched -- Pig (2021)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

92 minute running time … Nic Coppola as fight club former chef turned truffle hunter … this was some W.D. By thing by a Portlander with a trust fund probably … the critics will love it, the audience will hate it … I hated it anyway, though I do like Nic Coppola, I think he has a good sense of humor and he looks pretty good for 58. Billed as a ”revenge thriller” but it’s neither.

One star (terrible).

Keith Uhlich gets it right: “I … think the mournful tenor of the project is bullshit, appealing mostly to a regressive, reactionary, dewy-eyed defeatism that’s too much in vogue these days.”

The heck with Seattle

Movies Watched -- Cube (1997)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

90 minute running time but I quit 45 minutes in … no sub-titles on disc so couldn’t watch on fast forward and read along … neat set design and maybe not a bad idea (if you are a teenage pot smoker), but terrible writing and acting made it more or less unwatchable. One star (terrible). This was not a John Farr reco so he is thankfully not to blame for once. Don’t waste your time on this.

Marc Savlov gets it right: “It's an existential, Kafka-esque nightmare with no real resolution, although if you've been biding your time waiting to see some high-strung, ham-handed bickering on-screen, this is your A-ticket … Conversations, of which there are many, touch on everything from eco-terrorism to government cover-ups to UFOs, all while providing virtually no backstory about the cube or its inhabitants … Cube seems to have it all backwards: It's a film in search of a one-act play.”

Learning How To Lose

Added on by C. Maoxian.

The great Chip Reese:

“I think one of the most important qualiites to be a top poker player at a top level over time is learning how to lose. When I was young in my career in Las Vegas, I got broke a lot of times the first three or four years I was here because I couldn't quit. I think one of the qualities that we all have is that we are very competitive and we don't like to lose, so when you're young and you're just starting out and you get into a game and you get behind, you just feel like you've gotta get even that day, and it's a very desperate, terrible feeling, and it takes a long time to get over that and some guys never get over it.”

The Devils Must Be Tired

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Sunny War with “She Just Don’t Care” … late to discover her, but wow. Finger-picking, a great voice and smart lyrics, I dig it:

Movies Watched -- Manakamana (2013)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

118 minute running time … if you want to be trapped on a Nepalese cable car for two excruciating hours, this movie is for you … it’s another production from the Sensory Ethnography Lab like Leviathan and The Iron Ministry (which I liked because I know Chinese trains well), both of which were more successful than this one … if two hours wasn’t enough, the DVD includes another 30+ minutes of footage of more morose Nepalese trapped inside a cable car. They showed this one at Abu Ghraib on repeat in between dog attacks and rubber hose beatings.

John Farr is to blame, once again: “Not for all tastes, but patient, adventurous viewers should feel rewarded.” Rewarded or suicidal.

When Kalika heard this, she fled. [Except she was trapped inside a cable car]

Movies Watched -- Gate of Flesh (1964)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

In Japanese. Weird one. Made in 1964 but based in the summer of 1945, post-war Tokyo, about a band of five prostitutes … interesting set design, made on a shoestring … a pornographic movie of sorts, though made within a strictures of Japanese movie codes at the time … elements of bondage and sado-masochism … the story wasn’t very good, but issues of love and lust and jealousy explored when an ex-soldier now-criminal enters the prostitutes’ world … if you’re interested in Japanese culture and director Seijun Suzuki’s work, you should see it, otherwise you can give it a miss. Two stars (not terrible, but not recommended).

Bukkake money shot, circa 1964

Arturo Fuente Hemingway

Added on by C. Maoxian.

I often smoke Arturo Fuente Hemingways, usually Signatures or Classics. It’s a really great, smooth smoke which you should try if you haven’t already. Like my buddy Miguel, I don’t smoke many cigars longer than 6” anymore because I’m getting less patient as I age. The small ring gauge on the Hemingways is deceptive since this is still a really big (and great) smoke.