Movies Watched -- Loveless (2017)

In Russian. 127 minute running time so at least 20 to 30 minutes too long … another grim movie from Russia … 12-year-old kid runs away from home and his rotten parents, in the midst of a nasty divorce, don’t even notice for two days. (He overhears one of their fights where neither parent expresses any interest in taking him after the split — brutal.) The police are of little help, but there is a volunteer search and rescue group who get involved. Maybe that’s a hopeful thing?

I guess it’s some sort of metaphor for modern Russia, which is apparently so selfish and soulless that it doesn’t even care about its “children” anymore, something like that. The authorities (parents) are “at war” with one another and the people (the children) are the only victims. This was too long and didn’t have any redeeming qualities, it’s just an indictment, and hasn’t Russia always been this way?

SPOILERS: the kid is never found and life moves on. The parents are still selfish and nasty, even years later. Nothing changes except Alexey is still missing but not missed. Vanished and forgotten.

Ah, this was made by the same guy who made Elena, which I loved! That was a much more successful indictment of modern Russia in my mind. Skip Loveless and see Elena.

Even now, when I look at him or think about him, like right now, it seems like I have made some unforgivable mistake.

Have you thought?

- About what?

- What do you mean? You're the mother.

- I'm so tired of you...

- He really needs a mother.

- At this age he needs a father more.

Zippo Armor 2025 Collectible of the Year, No. 46761

$180 … Deep Carve, Photo Image 360°, Black Ice case, three colors of inlaid epoxy … I’m not thrilled with this design and will pass on it.

Movies Watched -- The Nightingale (2018)

136 minute running time so way too long … this was like an Australian version of The Revenant, but this was written and directed by a woman. It’s set in 1825 Tasmania, I guess… the savagery is pretty, er, savage … non-stop raping and murdering and genociding of the local population (aborigines) … it hurts extra hard because the Bad English Lieutenant is a handsome bastard … it’s a revenge story … so brutal that it’s hard to sit through — it’s super raw. This was a John Farr reco. I can’t recommend it myself since it’s too long, repetitive, and a little weak in spots, but it gets a solid yellow rating for sure.

Me and my mate, we're partial to a bit of Irish cunny.

Movies Watched -- Aurora (2011)

In Romanian. 183 minute running time. Yes, you read that right: THREE HOURS LONG. Cristi Puiu made The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, which I thought was brilliant and my favorite foreign language movie from 2005 … but I wasn’t thrilled with Aurora, mainly because it’s THREE HOURS LONG. Stars Puiu himself, and he mostly bumbles around and glares, that’s his great acting technique. He’s interested in how uncaring and indifferent bureaucracies are, esp. East Bloc ones. He’s interested in people who snap. Clearly he’s an interesting guy, but I can’t recommend this. John Farr did though.

Are you winding me up?

New Albums Being Promoted on Radio FIP in April 2025

Babx — Amour colosse (2025)

Black Country, New Road — Forever howlong (2025)

Black Flower — Kinetic (2025)

Blasé — Blablabla (2025)

Bon Iver — Everything is peaceful love (2025)

Echolalia — Echolalia (2025)

Gabi Hartmann — Into my world (2025)

Gabi Hartmann — La femme aux yeux de sel (2025)

Goya Gumbani — Warlord of the weejuns (2025)

Greentea Peng — Tell dem it's sunny (2025)

Hannah Cohen — Earthstar mountain (2025)

Merve — Platonik (2025)

Nyron Higor — Nyron Higor (2025)

Os Carbonos — Horse meat disco presents disco & boogie from Brazil, vol. 1 (2025)

Oscar Jerome — The fork (2025)

Poni Hoax — Greatest Hit (2025)

Siska — Holdin’ the vibe (2025)

Stella — Adagio (2025)

The Mercurials — Tend the Fire (2025)

Movies Watched -- Saint Maud (2019)

84 minute running time so the perfect length … this was a horror movie … it has the tell-tale ominous music and sound effect cues (annoying) … it’s not dumb horror though, it touches on lots of heavy stuff like religious faith and conversion, terminal illness, sexuality, mortification (self-inflicted pain), and mental health … the lead actress, Morfydd (MOR-vith, Welsh name) Clark, is very talented… she had to be since she carries the whole movie.

This was written and directed by a woman and men don’t fare very well in this … no positive male role models here for sure. The few men who appear are wimps or creeps (incl. G-d, lol). Maud is on her own for sure.

I have a green, yellow, red rating system for movies (go, consider, stop) and this gets a solid yellow rating. It’s not good enough to rate a green, but it’s also not bad enough to get a red. If you like horror (think The Exorcist), you should definitely see it. Thanks to John Farr for the reco.

Dick Brody wasn’t thrilled … his whole review is well-written and right on the money: “… the proximity of piety to fanaticism and fanaticism to madness … The story moves relentlessly ahead, never looking to the side, as if afraid to risk breaking the anticipatory mood of shock and fear … The more significant habits of [the horror] genre are the very ones that get in the way of the drama itself: the creation of effects without causes, the stoking of particular feelings with little practical substance or psychological insight to develop them … The burden and sublimity of faith—of Christian faith—that Maud bears is emblematized rather than explored, asserted rather than experienced.”

My little saviour…

How to Export Spotify Playlists to Excel

I discovered the free Spotify Playlist Analyser by Chosic today (no log-in required), and it’s an amazing tool. I instantly paid them $25 in thanks for creating it.

Every month I listen to ~1,500 new songs and had no way to keep track of them until I found Chosic. By listening to 18,000 new songs a year, I’m able to cover just about the entire listenable musical universe, I think.

Sure there are hundreds of thousands of new songs recorded every year (especially in recent years), but how many are worth listening to? One percent of 1,800,000 songs is 18,000 songs and I listen to that many every year so I’m probably not missing anything.

Movies Watched -- There Is No Evil (2020)

In Persian. 151 minute running time, but it’s four separate stories and only the first one is any good, so you should just watch that one and quit while you’re ahead. This was a recent reco from my buddy John Farr.

It’s a political movie from Iran, criticizing the brutality and inhumanity of the regime currently in power there, a place where prisoners (both political and otherwise) are routinely executed by the State … the first story is the only good one and you can skip the others, since they are lame, or heavy-handed, or weakly acted… sort of like made-for-TV stuff, just second-rate. But the first story is good.

SPOILERS. There’s a middle-aged pudgy guy who’s a real sweetheart, rescuing stuck kitties, being patient and tolerant with his annoying wife and bratty child, being patient and kind with his aged mother-in-law (or mother?). He’s a really meek and mild guy living a good, decent, middle-class life in Iran. But there is a sense all along that something isn’t right, and in the end you discover he’s a hangman. It’s well done.

It was like the filmmaker had one good story to tell but couldn’t sell a 45 minute movie, so he had to pad it out to 2 and half hours, which just ruined it. Anyway, I don’t recommend the movie, and if you do see it, you can stop after the first story, which is called “There Is No Evil.”

Deborah Young agrees: “… the four tales suffer from being narratively uneven, making the film’s two-and-a-half-hour running time seem long indeed … yet the first untitled episode about a man who works at night is a perfectly balanced and crafted little jewel that stands out in Rasoulof’s filmography.”

Not going on green, why?

Count In Locate Cost to Net P&L in DAS Trading Platform

Hard to find checkbox… Setup > Other Configuration > Trading Setting … scroll down until you see it.

View fullsize

What The Hell Happened To Canada?

I recently flew into the Toronto airport and was stunned to see that nearly everyone I saw was Indian (sub-continent, not Injun). It appears that Canada has taken in millions? of Indian immigrants recently. I’m going to have to do a mini deep dive on this:

“With nearly half a million newcomers arriving each year, Canada has one of the highest immigration rates per capita in the world.”

“Canada’s appeal as an immigration destination has been increasing over the past two decades, with a total of 464,265 people immigrating to the country in 2024. This figure is an increase from 2000-2001, when approximately 252,527 immigrants came to Canada.”

“Number of immigrants arriving in Canada in 2024, by province or territory of residence”

Interestingly I never saw an immigration officer when I arrived at the airport, I just scanned my passport and did a facial scan and waltzed through to collect my bags. It was weird, sort of like an open border.

“Indians Immigrate To Canada In Record Numbers”

“Indian enrollment at Canadian universities rose more than 5,800% in the last two decades, from 2,181 in 2000 to 128,928 in 2021, an increase of 126,747 students.”

“This story is part of Welcome to Canada, a CBC News series about immigration told through the eyes of the people who have experienced it.”

“Since the last federal election in Sept. 2021, Canada has welcomed roughly two million new citizens. They come from more than 200 countries and territories, with more than half being born in India, Philippines, Nigeria, China, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, the U.S. and France.”

Two million new “citizens” who can vote, holy cow…. Guess what they’re gonna vote for?

Sounds like Canada screwed up really badly and there’s going to be hell to pay.