So Long, Maryland

I'm juggling movers and cleaners and vinyl floor doers and it looks like I'll be physically moving, finally, to North Carolina next week along with my blissfully unaware kitties.  My Maryland house will go on sale before Thanksgiving and hopefully sell within a few weeks.  (The market is still pretty good here.)

I'm excited but also nervous.  I've got a day of yard work tomorrow but we're getting there.

"lucky if they have six sides"

The Guardian has a nice piece on the late, great Jason Molina (of Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Company fame):

"But Molina was unique from a young age. A voracious reader as a child, he consumed everything from instruction manuals to foreign language poetry. His teenage years were spent as a metalhead and by the time he was at college, his fervent, enthusiastic – sometimes annoying – energy earned him the nickname 'sparky'. Now writing a song a day, he would sometimes play impromptu 5am shows on a roof or porch to show them off. 'I’ve never met anyone like him,' says Nickoloff. 'He’s like a 20-sided die in Dungeons and Dragons. Most people are lucky if they have six sides.'”

I'm surprised the piece doesn't mention Erin Osmon's excellent biography, published only five years after his death.

He went to college up the road from me at Oberlin (outside Cleveland) while I was at Kenyon (outside Columbus) at roughly the same time.  Liz Phair graduated Oberlin in 1990 and I have no idea if they ever met.

His drinking still remains a mystery.  He seems to have gone from teetotaler to blackout drunkard in the period of a few years.  To go from abstinence to organ failure so quickly just seems really odd.

Anyhow, I think this is one of his better songs, "Division Street Girl":

You Can See Everything: Wut I Thunk

I'm going to tread lightly here for two reasons.  One, the less you know going in, the better.  Two, the way this film is (brilliantly) structured knowing what happens in the final act is basically a huge spoiler in itself.  So, in the abstract: is Elizabeth Holmes, founder of failed health startup Theranos, a manipulative liar or just an innocent dreamer who let things get out of hand?  Is her husband and now fellow collaborator Billy Evans a dedicated husband or a scheming con-man himself?  (The latter question is answered with much less ambiguity.)  But why is this movie captivating so many audiences who normally don't care about the tech-bros and tech-chicks who are determined to ruin our lives out in San Francisco with AI and shit that doesn't actually work and massive amounts of money being thrown at people who don't deserve a penny?  Because there are more fundamental questions at play: Do we believe what we think we believe?  Do we see what we think we see, or what we want to see?  Can we trust ourselves to know what reality is, given the forces of today (media, technology, people who make a lot of money off of media and technology)?  Otherwise, Nathan Fielder puts a bit too much of himself into the story but then again without some of the laugh out loud moments this would be a positively grim movie, a Sartre play basically.

Four cold ocean swims out of five!

So Long, Frederick

Looking east from Gambrill State Park over Frederick, Maryland.

Hopefully in about a month I'll be leaving Frederick, Maryland and moving into my new home in Sunset Beach, North Carolina.  I'm having some flooring redone and need to whip the backyard into shape (aided now by the cooler October weather) but otherwise I'm ready to call a realtor and get the ball rolling.

I moved here about three years ago after taking care of my dad in Bellingham, Washington.  It sounds crazy to move a 90 year-old with dementia across country, but effectively it was the only way for him to have contact with his entire family based here in Maryland short of very expensive, very stressful cross-county plane flights by visitors.  (There was no way my dad could fly by this point.)

Frederick is basically north of D.C. and west of Baltimore, making it an exurb.  Lots of people here commute to the big cities and end up spending three hours a day driving.  The job market in Frederick itself isn't great.  I worked as a substitute teacher, then for about a year in local government.  There are some nice things about the place (walkable downtown, a variety of good restaurants) but it's one of those towns that has a very inflated opinion of itself.

Parts of it are pretty, as you can see.

But at the end of the day I want to live near the ocean.  My dad passed two years ago and I miss him, but it's time for me to set my own direction.  Again, I've made good friends here and had some good experiences, but it's never felt like home.  Then again, what does?

Also, the property taxes here on my two-bedroom home are ridiculous.  Yes, I am the old man now who is concerned with these things.  Just by leaving Maryland I'll be saving a significant amount of money, and I can walk to the beach every day.

Sounds pretty good.

Sadly Predictable

Trump and Musk selling out Ukraine is not surprising, and probably should have happened years ago.  They're both so obviously opposed to even the concept of Democracy that it must burn them how effectively Ukraine has waged a war of self-defense and national survival.

It sucks.  But I also don't imagine Ukraine collapsing overnight.  Above all else, they've been adept to changing strategies as needed.

It's 2026 and we are still ruled by narcissistic, jejune fuckwits.

I also read somewhere that Musk does have significant business dealings in Europe (selling Teslas for starters) and there will likely be pushback on his attempts to poleax Zelenskyy.

Musk: Wut I Thunk

This thing is four hours long.  And I wish I could say it "flew by" but simply for length, this is a failed movie.  So why review it, other than that I was really curious to see a film about the white supremacist and malignant narcissist who is basically a Republican donor / sugar daddy now?  Turns out, this was planned as a four-part series for HBO.  Then again, if you release it theatrically you're subject to filmic standards.  Anyhow, the stuff with his first wife Justine is amazing (also the mother of a trans daughter who Musk refers to as "dead" after transitioning).  The stuff with his other wives is similarly jaw-dropping and deeply upsetting.  The drug use stuff could have used more evidence.  The stuff with his dad is straight up bizarre.  The last hour or so covering his Trump relationship?  Much less interesting, since it's very recent history.  Grab a cozy blanket and watch this at home, at your own pace, with a fine bottle of antifa red or white.

Two exploding rockets out of five!

Moving, On

Oh hey there, I just bought a new house.  I'm busy doing exciting things like getting utilities put in my name and choosing a new paint color for my new home.  Only downside is that it was painted (interior wise) in this horrible "under the sea" light blue color.  I require something more neutral and businesslike and adult, because that's how I roll.

It's exciting, for real though.  Now I'm getting my Maryland house set for resale.  It's in decent shape, but a few things definitely need some work.

As it stands due to local home prices, I'm going to actually make money selling a dull suburban home with a tiny lawn for a larger, generally nicer, and nearer the beach-ier home down in North Carolina.

So, lots of detail-oriented stuff basically that I generally don't like but that has to be done.  I'll be moving to the beach a month into the off-season, but I've been told that's the best time to be there -- no tourists.  And weather should still bein the 70s or 60s,  No heat, no air-conditioning.

It's just funny that what seemed like a far-off dream a few months ago is now happening.  And it's good!

Four Years Old!

A happy fourth birthday to Mandu the tux and Chingu the cream-and-gray, the two kitties who make my life a whole lot better than it should be.  They were adopted all the way across the county when I was working at an animal shelter and taking care of my dad in Bellingham, Washington.  Here we are in Frederick, Maryland, and soon we'll be in Sunset Beach, North Carolina.  Technically Mandu is a few days older than Chingu, but that's about all we know for precise dates.

They are my buddies and they shed way too much.

Primetime: Wut I Thunk

The first half plays it safe and straight -- what was it like behind the scenes of To Catch A Predator over 20 years ago?  And there's entertainment (and cringe, and penises) enough there for a decent film.  The second half is something else though, and it requires a bit of buy-in from the audience: What if TCAP was actually a symbol for everything that's gone wrong with America since 9/11?  What if it was simply a mirror to our own neuroses and pathologies as individuals and America as a whole?  Me, I loved it.  I can see how others might not.  In either event, Robert Pattinson is, as always, wholly captivating.

Four flip-phones out of five!

Hearts and Minds

Iranian anti-Trump art is really pretty good.

Hope: Wut I Thunk

Take your pick -- boring and formulaic, or a genre-busting swing for the fences?  With the South Korean film Hope, you're getting the latter kiddo!  And the results are pretty disappointing.  What starts out promisingly as a sort of small town cop meets a village-eating alien is pretty good, with some excellent practical effects and camera work.  But the second act really starts to stretch things out, to the point where we've got a dozen different characters doing their own thing and it's simply too hard to keep track of all of them.  Then there's the final act, which goes in a direction that simply doesn't pay off anything set up earlier in the film.  Individual performances are fine, and there are some funny moments amidst the ultra-violence, but this is a swing and a resounding miss.  Also, way too long.

Two amazing leather cop jackets out of five!