Meanlevee

  Gimmick promotion for the Screaming Skull offering a free coffin if you die of fright.   I finally saw Uncut Gems, the other day. As the credits rolled, I turned to my wife in excitement and asked her "is this movie more anxiety inducing than [redacted]?". She said no, but it was fairly close. To me, this movie even tops Bad Lieutenant (1992) in the realm of characters digging a hole for themselves with high-stakes gambling. It made me feel sick how badly main character Howard Ratner was screwing up his life. I had a great time.  But my wife and I agreed that it wasn't quite the most nerve-racking movie. I have a good idea what is, but nobody else seems to have a clue. Combing through listicles and various web-posts, I did not see my pick mentioned, and I did not see my second pick mentioned. I saw some very dubious choices--great films, to be sure--but nothing that makes me sweat, or stay my breath for a significant amount of the runtime. Somebody even listed La Strada...

 Really quick--I improvised a potato soup the other day that I was pleased with. I have long been chasing the skillset of an outstanding home cook that measures by eyeball and conjures recipes from the heart and imagination. After many years of practice, I can do this, and you can too! I encourage you to try this at home with minimal shopping. If you can, use what you have on hand. Throwing a little something together with whatever is sitting in your refrigerator is a special power you can also acquire. Use substitutions, if necessary. Here's what you do: Get a few Yukon Gold potatoes and cut them in half lengthwise, then slice into bite-sized pieces. You needn't peel Go ahead and completely dice one of the Yukon Golds. This is my special trick! Peel some russet potatoes and cut them to a size consistent with the YGs. Blending two types of potatoes is another cool trick, but not mandatory Boil all potatoes At this point, you could just stop and make mashed potatoes, if you like...

  Actually, tSWHS has nothing to do with Christmas. I know I'm a month late, but I have a very Christmassy observation about a special I've seen nearly every year; more so than I've seen It's a Wonderful Life , but less than a Christmas Carol. Charles M. Schulz I'm talking about the 1965 Christmas special based on the beloved comic strip Peanuts,  sponsored by Coca-Cola. Did you know  A Charlie Brown Christmas , which I love, and will continue to watch, is actually somewhat evil? Professional Debby Downer and precocious little sister. Charlie Brown, apparently, suffers from chronic seasonal depression, because he will not lighten the fuck up through most of the runtime. I think it's funny how Sally is excited for Christmas presents and Charlie Brown has crippling ennui about it. It's classic holiday fun (really), and it has a simple, evergreen message. It's just too bad that the main visual metaphor for the over commercialization of Christmas is the Alum...

I'm forever bummed out that there's no college radio stations in range of my town. I used to live close enough to tune into FM90 KACV of Amarillo, Texas, and I found a lot of cool acts there. WAAX WAAX is a rock band from Brisbane, Australia. I heard their single "Labrador" in 2018, and now they are my favorite band of the last 20 years.  Here's a picture of me from five years ago. I don't really buy merch, but I was always wearing this shirt (and also this beanie); not sure why the text is inverted in the photo. I even bought a copy of this shirt, and would buy more if they hadn't stopped selling it. Here's me in front of a door The lead singer Marie "Maz" DeVita is the only original member left, and they've gone in a somewhat different direction, but I'm still a fan. I hope to see them live, someday. Alex Lahey Courtney Barnett Speaking of Australia, I also first heard Alex Lahey and Courtney Barnet on FM90. They are next level famo...

Last night, I saw these SnackWell's Devil's Food cookie cakes in a grocery store aisle on an episode of the Sopranos, and I double checked--very unfortunate (and anti-women), but this treat is no longer on the market.  These things were prolific in the '90s when they were cutting the fat from much of the snack food to market it as "healthy". They kept all the sugar, of course. This was bad for the public's understanding of nutrition, but disastrous for the yogurt section of the dairy aisle. I don't want a low fat yogurt with 19 grams of sugar per serving! I want to go the other way with it, so I buy keto friendly yogurt like this: All that said, SnackWell's little cookie cakes marketed to middle-aged women who love chocolate and    healthy snacking  kicked ass, and I really want one. Only '90s kids will remember. Maybe someone will bring them back like Oreo-O's. 

Maybe I'm not meant for internet "fandom", such that it is. I don't read/write fanfics, roleplay, excessively meme--I don't even dabble in shipping; it's all pretty odd to me. I do let myself get pulled into discourse, once in a while, because my two vices of choice are analysis and fashioning opinions/arguments. I suppose it's a bit immature to be a little smarty-pants online, but it keeps my brain from going totally smooth (that and sudoku). So anyway, there's this famous tweet: Excellent, good satire of how people  in online spaces engage with various types of brands. I have to bear this in mind when certain topics of discussion come up. Right now everyone is talking about Pluribus, so I'll hold this talisman close to remind me to stay normal. It's just a show. I've got Carol Sturka's back. She has done nothing wrong, really*.  I can see being neutral to her, personality-wise, but most of her outbursts are justified, or at least und...

Every so often, my doom scrolling uncovers a new man that has a similar enthusiasm, to mine, of the 1997 film Starship Troopers, yet has the opposite takeaway from the film's message. These men are many, but have the same personality and worldview, and I can't help but see them as one person, diametrically opposed to me on some spectrum of Verhoeven film analysis. A nemesis. A shadow version of myself. I am sure I did not understand this film upon first viewing circa 97-98; I was about ten years old. The effects were good for the time, and it's an exciting action/creature movie for a ten year old; at the plot level, the cool, attractive young troopers were the heroes. Yay.  In high school, I turned on the movie* because I was starting to form opinions about politics and film (uh oh). At the tender age of 15ish I decided I could not stand the jingoism of the characters in this film. My understanding of Starship Troopers had somehow grown poorer. I mistook the film's por...