Friday, March 22, 2024

Open thread


Talk about what you want.

I don't know if any of you have ever worked with a former nurse's aide but seems to me, it's my impression that they tend to look for health problems in other people.  Chef at work has a small lump, probably a cyst on the back of his shoulder.  He's not working shirtless of course so I probably would never have noticed until she told me about it.  Dishwasher somewhat overweight and she says she walks funny and told her she has the wrong shoes.  One day she said I have dry hands and bought me a small bottle of Jergen's which is fine but maybe you don't have enough to do we can put more on your plate.  My late aunt God rest her soul was a retired RN and once told an Amish woman her socks were too tight and was cutting off her circulation so there's a trend here.  Now nobody's coming to work with a tumor on the side of their face the size of a basketball like you see in those infomercials for Mercy Ships.  We all have something.  An imperfection, health ailment or problem that's not life hreatening that we live with or manage or even totally ignore.  Some may see a doctor some may not.  Most of us are not Rockefellers with endless funds.  I work alongside a young Spanish guy with a deformed ear.  I'm sure he's aware of it I could care less.  To be filed under mildly annoying.

Or we can discuss Kate Middleton:)

Monday, March 18, 2024

The proposed ban against TikTok seems rather strange

It's weirdly authoritarian.  Govern me harder Daddy.  I'm not getting this one.

Friday, March 15, 2024

Random Thoughts On Last Tango In Paris (1972)

Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.  Widely seen as a landmark in the history of sexual explicitness in cinema.  So where was the explicit sex I must have missed it?  Even the uncut version is not overly graphic.  Many people if the movie is mentioned automatically think of butter.  That's a childish mind.  Some of the scenes that come to my mind is the character of Paul played of course by Marlon Brando talking to his dead wife alone in the room as she's being prepared for burial.  To my mind this is some of the best acting in the history of cinema.  Also the classic ending where Jeanne played by Maria Schneider shoots him.   The ending is so open-ended it called for a sequel but there never was one.  She's rehearsing her lines for when the police will interview her later (he was a lunatic, I never knew him, he tried to rape me) but so many people had already seen them together at the dance hall but the movie simply ends with the sultry music coming on.  My takeaway - she was okay with having a kind of strange even perverse relationship with him.  She kept going back to him in the apartment even though she was engaged to another man yet when Paul wanted a normal loving relationship with her she basically kept saying it's over and killed him.  A cinematic and much discussed enigma.  Although not by any stretch an exemplary character he's been through the mill after his wife's gruesome suicide and this is his fate.  A movie with many layers to it it's worth a watch or a few.  The actress appeared nude in many of the scenes while Brando kept his clothes on except for one brief scene early on where they didn't show much.  Much vulgar language throughout.  So that's my take the movie is worth diving into.