Hackneyed

Category: Media Diet

  • Round Midnight (1986)

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    I often want to live in films, but seldom ones this dour. But jazz clubs in the 50s, that’s my love language. Especially when it’s shot this beautifully, this dreamy. The faux-Paris streets at night are as out of this world as the soundtrack. Round Midnight unfolds so nonchalantly, there’s almost no exposition. Things just…

  • Walking, Productivity and Creativity

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    Luke
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    I have walked and jogged and ran quite a bit since the pandemic began some 87 years ago, but this summer I decided to step it up (unfortunate pun intended). 100,000 steps per week, every week, for twenty weeks. Two million steps. Sounded like a reasonable goal. I didn’t think about my Fitbit dying, being…

  • TV I’ve Watched Since the Lockdown…

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    Or, the last time I wrote about shows that I watched. American Crime Story (Season 2): The Assassination of Gianni Versace. Tom Ripley true crime, loved it. Atlanta (Seasons 3-4): I could use one more season of this show. Felt incomplete. Brilliant. Daring. Funny. But incomplete. Beavis and Butt-Head (Season 9): I didn’t know how…

  • The Dinner Parting

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    I haven’t spoken much about this the last two years, but I am pleased to announce that The Dinner Parting, a movie I produced and co-wrote with my longtime collaborator J.W. Andrew, will make its debut at the Cinequest Film Festival. It will start virtually April 1st, and there will be an event in-person this…

  • The Bustle Booth

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    Since it’s my birthday and I haven’t really said hi in quite some time, I figured I would answer the same questions The Bustle plans to inflict on celebrities for eternity. What’s your coffee order?No. What are the saved weather locations on your phone?East Lansing, various other Michigan cities I frequent, the cities I have…

  • Werner Herzog on Skateboarding

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    “I’m not familiar with the scene of skateboarding. At the same time, I had the feeling, yes, that’s kind of my people… You have to accept trial and error…”

  • Fuck January

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    You’re coming off the holidays. It’s cold outside. It’s snowing. Not suggesting be outright lazy for a month, but lean into the new year. You’re much more likely to set goals and keep them if you formulate a game plan. I keep a planner and in the back pages run monthly tasks that I use…

  • Today Would Have Been Daniel Johnston’s 60th Birthday

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    He fought mental illness his entire life, and by my estimation was at best a serviceable guitarist, decent pianist and awful singer. One that wrote simple, often naive lyrics. But there is a reason even the most mainstream of alt-rock-kingpins (Cobain, Veddar and Cornell) loved him so dearly. In their simplicity, his songs were haunting…

  • Suntory

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    Got home from work this evening, put Coltrane’s Love Supreme on the hi-fi and poured a glass of Suntory. To quote Monk, “Straight, No Chaser.” Pretty sure this is how I looked about a half hour ago when I was pouring my first drink: Thinking I need to step up my game a bit though,…

  • Michael Apted, Director and Seven Up Documentarian, Dies at 79

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    From his obituary in The Guardian: “The film-maker and documentarian was known for films such as Gorillas in the Mist and Coal Miner’s Daughter, as well as his long-running series of Up documentaries. His death has been confirmed by his agency to the Hollywood Reporter. No further details are yet known. Apted’s career started in…

  • Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund

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    Oddly enough after writing about this, I am reminded a year ago today I watched the 2014 dark comedy with the same name: Pretty fucking funny. The Gods of Carnage turn a routine, man-made avalanche into something that at least looks scarier. Scary enough to knockout assumptions of security and a few gender stereotypes. Scary…

  • Dezron Douglas and Brandee Younger – Force Majeure

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    Cutting a jazz record is usually done so either live or by “getting the band back together” in a little room and ripping it up. This album, named after the clause in contracts that allows events to be cancelled due to an “act of God,” speaks of that struggle. A compilation of weekly online performances…

  • Metropolitan, Whit Stillman

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  • Twin Peaks, David Lynch

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  • Pet Semetary

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    Was on the road a lot for work the last week, and found myself on country roads in thick fog while listening to Michael C. Hall read Pet Semetary on Audible. Now it is late on this rainy autumn evening, just on the heels of Halloween, and I find myself home alone, as is Louis…

  • A Mighty Wind, Christopher Guest

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    Rest in Peace, Mr. Willard.

  • I’ve watched more television in the quarantimes than the last few years combined.

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    Atlanta (Seasons 1-2): I applaud the ambition, but it didn’t always grab me. Could have been funnier, or at least shown more heart. Stanfield was great, as always, but was most impressed by Brian Tyree Henry’s nuanced performance. Better Things (Season 4): The small moments have always been the best part of this show. There…

  • Nostalghia, Andrei Tarkovsky

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    Relatable as fuck.

  • O gentle and loving St Fiona,

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    Patron Saint of Self-Isolation, for you I shall fetch thy bolt cutters, for you are forever in my heart, & forever my heart. Amen.

  • Infinite Jest

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    If, by the virtue of charity or the circumstance of desperation, you ever chance to spend a little time around a Substance-recovery halfway facility like Enfield MA’s state-funded Ennet House, you will acquire many exotic new facts… That certain persons simply will not like you no matter what you do. That you do not have…

  • Film: Year in Review (Sorta)

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    Watched 322 films last year that I hadn’t seen before. I’m usually not qualified to make year-end lists till March or so, but a few from 2019 that stood out to me thus far: Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, Uncut Gems, Jojo Rabbit, Knives Out, Parasite, I Heard You Paint Houses, Booksmart, Us and…

  • This is what a decade on Last.fm looks like.

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    Listened to 315,504 songs, spread over 10,147 artists, according to my (second) account. Looking at my top artists, if you were to ask if those were my favortites, I would say, “Close enough.”

  • Story of an Artist

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    Listen up and I’ll tell a story, about an artist growing old. Some would try for fame and glory, others aren’t so bold. And everyone in friends and family, sayin’ “Hey, go get a job. Why do you only do that only? Why are you so odd? “And we don’t really like what you do.…