Talking and Playlists

Years ago, I drove a fairly long distance to meet and hang out with my now (soon-to-be-ex-)wife. To make the 90-minute rides there and back again a little more interesting, I started making quick playlists of songs I like or wanted to hear again or hear more of. Nothing overly curated – or at all, really – just songs that came up and stuck with me. Originally, these playlists were burned onto discs, but those disappeared over time, or were discarded after becoming so scratched that they were useless – and anyway, technology advances and everything becomes outmoded.

I still have the playlists in text files on my computer, but many of the song-files disappeared in a bit of data-loss fun. For years, I’ve been putting off rebuilding them in Music. I'm not even sure I can at this point as many of the files were esoteric or likely unique to my iTunes library. I may not be able to hear the full playlists again, but I can make a written listing of them for my own future curiosity – and doing that more than one place seems like a good idea. So I’ll be adding them here.

Starting in November of 2016 and continuing occasionally since then, I’ve used Music/iTunes/whatever to make shorter, even quicker playlists, mostly to listen to between podcasts as I cycle. As CDs have become less common (I haven’t burned one in nearly a decade), making super short playlists isn’t wasteful at all, so my playlists have shrunken to just a few songs. I also listen mainly to podcasts these days. If, like me, you're someone who rarely finds new music, this is a notable improvement in both convenience and frugality – environmentally, too, Shirley.

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I'll start, as I'm not at home to find the tracklisting for disc #1, with the more recent Music playlists. Here’s the first one, 2016, 11:

Perfect Day – Lou Reed
Sandcastles – Beyoncé
Super Bass – Nicki Minaj
Heathens – Twenty-One Pilots
The Auld Triangle – Chris Thile, Chris Eldridge, Marcus Mumford, Justin Timberlake, & Gabe
Witcher (from the Inside Llewyn Davis: OST)
Galway Bay – Clancy Brothers

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NBA All-Starters 2021 – As selected by yours truly

Let the record show that the East included defensive choices in the back court: I didn't want to pic Harden (fuck that guy this year) or Irving (missed too many games, regardless of how good his work is off or on the court). So I’m not thrilled with my choices there and easily could’ve chosen a number of other deserving players.

Let the record show as well, that I’m annoyed by the front-court, back-court distinction. Paul George, who’s been having a great season, has been playing point a bunch and shooting threes like a 2-guard. That he can only be chosen to play in the front-court sucks. As the positions become less and less true, so ought the choice-rules. I would’ve swapped Curry with PG.

Let the record also show that I suck and this, but it hardly matters because the idea of having an All-Star Game this year is insane.

all-star fixed.png

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New to The New Yorker again

In my younger and more literate days, before getting married and upending my daily habits, I used to read The New Yorker all the time – and books by its writers, and books about its members, and stories about its goings-on. At first, for a few years, I'd finish every issue, but later, I'd fail to and get a nice case of New Yorker guilt like the rest of you. But getting a new issue, sitting down, and reading through it was fascinating and fun for me – therapeutic, too; it's a habit I’ve missed for years.

My subscription lapsed, sometime in the decade-and-a-half since, and I havn't picked up an issue since (with the rare exception of a big event – Obama becoming President, for example). Actually, I still haven't picked up an issue. But I did recently resubscribe – on my iPad. It hasn't been long, and I don't know if I can rebuild the habit. But I've gotten thru a couple issues and I'm enjoying it all over again.

Two articles of note, so far:

The mammoth and fascinating The Plague Year, by Lawrence Wright, which is totes gonna win some awards. (And which, I've just discovered, has a related New Yorker Radio Hour episode here.)

And this, by Nick Paumgarten, which I finished last night and absolutely loved. Interestingly, it's called Bad Influencer in the magazine, but Trolling the Great Outdoors online.

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2021.January.Watched

Lotta basketball, basically.

76ers-Magic (iMac, MacBook)
Clippers-Blazers (iMac, MacBook)
Hawks-Nets (iMac)
Blazers-Warriors (iMac)
Jazz-Clippers (iMac)
The Mandalorian (S02E03-7) (iMac)
The Incredible Hulk (iMac)
Clippers-Suns (iMac)
Warriors-Blazers (iMac)
76ers-Hornets (iMac)
Clippers-Warriors (iMac)
76ers-Wizards (iMac)
Blazers-Timberwolves (iMac)
Mavericks-Nuggets (iMac)
Warriors-Clippers (iMac)
Blazers-Kings (iMac)
Clippers-Bulls (iMac)
Blazers-Raptors (iMac)
76ers-Heat (iMac)
Pacers-Warriors (iMac)
Clippers-Pelicans (iMac)
Pacers-Blazers (iMac)
Clippers-Kings (iMac)
Catch Me If You Can (TV)
Nets-Magic (iMac)
Blazers-Hawks (iMac)
Knicks-Celtics (iMac)
Clippers-Pacers (iMac)
Spurs-Blazers (iMac)
Nets-Bucks (iMac)
Clippers-Kings (iMac)
Clippers-Thunder (iMac)
Blazers-Knicks (iMac)
Clippers-Thunder (iMac)
Celtics-Cavs (iMac)
Hawks-Clippers (iMac)
Warriors-Timberwolves (iMac)

41 different titles, for an average of 1.32 titles per day.

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2020.Sneezes.Wrapped

I blew thru a whole year.

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January’s total: 51 (1.6451 per day)
February’s total: 69 (2.3793/d)
March’s total: 79 (2.5483/d)
April’s total: 78 (2.6/d)
May’s total: 73 (2.354/d)
June’s total: 60 (2/d)
July’s total: 56 (1.806/d)
August’s total: 50 (1.612/d)
September’s total: 73 (2.433/d)
October’s total: 65 (2.096/d)
November’s total: 48 (1.6/d)
December’s total: 94 (3.03/d)

2020 subtotal: 796 sneezes in 366 days: 2.17486/d.

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Martin Scorsese's List of British Films For Edgar Wright

Read out by Wright on the Empire Film Podcast episode “A Celebration of Cinema: Edgar Wright and Quentin Tarantino in Conversation”.

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Kind Hearts & Coronets (1949; Robert Hamer)
Station Six-Sahara (1962; Seth Holt)
Brief Ecstasy (1937; Edmond T. Gréville)
The Halfway House (1944; Basil Dearden)
Went the Day Well? (1943; Alberto Cavalcanti)
Nowhere to Go (1958; Seth Holt)
The Nanny (1965; Seth Holt)
Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945; Arthur Crabtree)
The Man in Gray (1943; Leslie Arliss)
So Long at the Fair (US re-release: The Black Curse; 1950; Terence Fisher)
Stolen Face (1952; Terence Fisher)
Four Sided Triangle (1953; Terence Fisher)
The Sound Barrier (US: Breaking Through the Sound Barrier / Breaking the Sound Barrier; 1952; David Lean)
This Happy Breed (1944; David Lean)
Guns at Batasi (1964; John Guillermin)
Green for Danger (1946; Sidney Gilliat)
The Mindbenders (1963; Basil Dearden)
To the Public Danger (1948 short film; Terence Fisher)
It Always Rains on Sunday (1947; Robert Hamer)
The Long Good Friday (1980; John Mackenzie)
A High Wind in Jamaica (1965; Alexander Mackendrick)
The Queen of Spades (1949; Thorold Dickinson)
Hew and Cry (1947; Seth Holt)
Pink String and Sealing Wax (1945; Robert Hamer)
The Blue Lamp (1950; Basil Dearden)
The Good Die Young (1954; Lewis Gilbert)
Mandy (1952; Alexander Mackendrick)
Vampyres (1974; Jose Larraz)
Uncle Silas (US: The Inheritance; 1947; directed by Charles Frank)
The Legend of Hell House (1973; John Hough)
Night of the Eagle (US: Burn, Witch, Burn!; 1962; Sidney Hayers)
The Flesh of the Fiends (US: Mania; 1960; John Gilling)
The Snorkel (1957; Guy Green)
The Taste of Fear (US: Scream of Fear; 1961; Seth Holt)
The Damned (US: These Are the Damned; 1963; Joseph Losey)
Plague of the Zombies (1966; John Gilling)
Quatermass (US: The Creeping Unknown; 1954; Val Guest)
Quatermass in the Pit (US: The Enemy from Space; 1967; Nigel Kneale)
Dr Jeckyll and Sister Hyde (1971; Roy Ward Baker)
The Devil Rides Out (1967; Terence Fisher)
The Asphyx (AKA: Spirit of the Dead / The Horror of Death; 1972; Peter Newbrook)
Underground (1928, silent; Anthony Asquith)
Shooting Stars (1927, silent; Anthony Asquith)
Sapphire (1959; Basil Dearden)
Whistle and I'll Come To You (BBC short film; 1968; Jonathan Miller)
Dead of Night (1945; Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Robert Hamer, & Basil Dearden)
The Enfield Haunting (TV, semi-doc series)
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987; Jack Clayton)
The Pumpkin Eater (1964; Jack Clayton)
The Innocents (1961; Jack Clayton)
The Seventh Veil (1945; Compton Bennett)
Yield to the Night (US: Blonde Sinner; 1956; J. Lee Thompson)

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In their chat later in the episode, as Wright and Tarantino talked about old British flicks they’d been watching and found on their own, Tarantino mentioned a movie that’s available on YouTube called Strongroom – from 1962. I watched it. He was right: it’s fantastic. Brilliant idea, really well executed.

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2021.December.Watched

Here’s what I watched to finish up the old year:

The Departed (iMac)
Zodiac (iMac)
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (TV)
The Nice Guys (iMac)
The Big Short (iMac)
Mank (iMac)
My Next Guest Needs No Introduction: Robert Downey Jr (S03E02) (iMac)
Private Dicks (S01E01) (iMac)
Everybody Wants Some!! (iMac)
Wall Street (iMac)
The Program (2015) (iMac)
The Program (1993) (iMac)
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (iMac)
Rebecca (iMac)
Five Easy Pieces (iMac)
The Mandalorian (S02E01-2)
Shadow of a Doubt (iMac)
The Bigamist (iMac)
Footloose (2011) (TV)
Iron Man (iMac)
Nets-Warriors (iMac)
Clippers-Lakers (iMac)
Celtics-Bucks (iMac)
Clippers-Nuggets (iMac)
Bucks-Warriors (iMac)
Jazz-Blazers (iMac)
Nets-Celtics (iMac)
Blazers-Rockets (iMac)
Hornets-Nets (iMac)
Pacers-Celtics (iMac)
Blazers-Lakers (iMac)
The Midnight Sky (TV)
Clippers-Timberwolves (iMac)

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January (44 different titles)
February (21)
March (34)
April (55)
May (65)
June (37)
July (26)
August (72)
September (92)
October (39)
November (27)
December (34)

568 titles for the year – for an average of 47.33 titles per month; 1.55 per day.

終

Finally watching Rebecca (1940)

I know. it’s a travesty that it’s taken this long, but here we are and it has and we all have to deal with the facts as they are not as they should be. Anyway:

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Rebecca Screenshot.png

I never believe signatures in movies. Each time they’re shown, they look like they were farted off in a moment rather than developed over a lifetime. So they always break the movie’s spell on me because of this.

If the whole signature here was built out of the materials in the final E, we’d finally have one that I buy.

There’s depth in that E. Madness, too, yes – but depth.

終

2020.November.Sneezes

No one requested this, so here it is:

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January’s total: 51 (1.6451 per day)
February’s total: 69 (2.3793/d)
March’s total: 79 (2.5483/d)
April’s total: 78 (2.6/d)
May’s total: 73 (2.354/d)
June’s total: 60 (2/d)
July’s total: 56 (1.806/d)
August’s total: 50 (1.612/d)
September’s total: 73 (2.433/d)
October’s total: 65 (2.096/d)
November’s total: 48 (1.6/d)

2020 subtotal: 702 sneezes in 335 days: 2.0955/d.

終

2020.November.Watched

Here’s my watched-list from November – the second smallest list of the pandemic began. I only saw 27 different titles.

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Vuelta à España Stage 12 (iMac)
The Queen’s Gambit (S01E05-7) (iMac)
Vuelta à España Stage 13 (iMac)
Vuelta à España Stage 14 (iMac)
Long Way Up (S01E01-12) (iMac)
Chef (iMac)
Easy A (iMac)
Maniac (S01E01-2) (iMac)
Dazed and Confused (iMac)
The Wolf of Wall Street (iMac)
Shampoo (iMac)
My Next Guest Needs No Introduction: Kim Kardashian West (S03E01) (iMac)
State of Play (iMac)
Motherless Brooklyn (iMac)

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January (44 different titles)
February (21)
March (34)
April (55)
May (65)
June (37)
July (26)
August (72)
September (92)
October (39)
November (27)

532 titles for the year – for an average of 48.36 titles per month.

終

TV+

Its name is terrible, but, for the most part, I enjoy TV+. It’s a new service, so the lack of content is understandable, and they seem to be adding shows and shit at a reasonable pace. It should probably remain free for a while because the selection is so meager, but its cost is low and its content isn’t bad.

But fuck it needs a skip-intro button.

I’ve been watching Long Way Up – the travel show – and enjoying it. But having recaps at the start (which, sadly, is de rigueur, apparently, and I’m pretty sure cause cancer) and then an unskippable intro is absolutely awful.

I fucking know you’re going to go in an out of Chile and Argentina. Because you keep fucking repeating it. And you’ll be in Los Angeles for Christmas? You don’t say.

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