Uncouth Reflections

“End of Watch” (2012)

Posted on July 14, 2013 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

An alternate title for this could be LAPD: Awesomest Police Force on Earth. The cinematographer, Roman Vasyanov, is a Russian who studied at Moscow’s Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography where his mentor was Vadim Usov, Tarovsky’s cameraman on SOLARIS and ANDREI RUBLEV. Yet another movie whose visual style is heavily influenced by YouTube and GoPros with a healthy dose of JACKASS. The opening chase sequence looks like a combination of Russian dashcam footage and Grand Theft Auto.

The story is loose yet deliberate as it alternates between the work and family life of two beat cops played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña. William Friedkin said it “may be the best cop movie ever made” and I’m guessing he appreciated how far the movie was willing to push its characters. Director-writer David Ayer, screenwriter of the great TRAINING DAY and the first FAST AND FURIOUS, nicely ratchets up the tension with each successive scene. Like the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, it soon becomes apparent that these cops are in over their heads. The film almost pines for the halcyon days of the 90s when all cops had to worry about was black and Hispanic gang members shooting one another over territory, as opposed to dealing with the Aztec savagery of the Sinaloa drug cartel. A Navy veteran, Ayer has a good ear for how men bond in extreme situations while both Gyllenhaal and Peña lend the movie a believable broham camaraderie.

Related

An interview with Roman Vasyanov.
Here’s the trailer.

Posted in Movies | Tagged David Ayer, Los Angeles, Mexico, police, Russia, Video Games | Leave a comment

Linkage

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

Are L.A. restaurants better than NYC ones? I’ve been to two of the places mentioned in the article, Baco Mercat and animal, and would highly recommend both. Sir Barken wrote about animal here.
Not The Onion: North Korea edition.
What Would Orwell Think? Speaking of Orwell, some mischievous Dutch artists recently celebrated his birthday.
“I don’t think the Fourth Amendment would make it out of committee at this point.” — Cindy Cohn, Electronic Frontier Foundation, via John Perry Barlow on Twitter.
A defense of evolutionary psychology.
Exploding actresses. Misogynist. (Also, exploding Disney princesses.)
Face Mashups

Posted in Food and health, Linkathons, Movies, Politics and Economics | Leave a comment

Actually Kind of Enough

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes:

A trendlet I’ve been noticing recently is one that has built on another trendlet I first noticed some years ago. Here are some visuals to illustrate:

Oops, forgot to use highlighter in those final examples — but if you’re like me the “kind of”s will be popping out at you anyway.

Continue reading →

Posted in Books Publishing and Writing, Education | 29 Comments

Hiking Cold Spring and Breakneck

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:

I had some time off from work recently, so, semi-active, nature-lovin’ guy that I am, I decided to do a little hiking. I try to go hiking a couple of times a year. I find that getting out into nature for a few hours is sort of . . . recalibrating — like an enema for the soul. Corny, right? But, hey, it’s good to be corny about some things, nature being one of them. It’s better than being corny about cats.

Another nice thing about hiking: it helps reorient you. This is especially true if, like me, you live in an area rich in weird nooks and crannies. This time around I decided to hike around the village of Cold Spring. Located on the east side of the Hudson River, Cold Spring sprung up around the West Point foundry, which was established in the early part of the 19th century to provide artillery to the federal government. These days it mostly serves as a charming little getaway for NYC folks who want to go antiquing and gawk at the local scenery. It’s a fairly quick train ride from Manhattan.

Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Personal reflections, The Good Life | Tagged Breakneck Ridge, bullfrogs, cicadas, Cold Spring, Constitution Island, hiking, history, Hudson River, Hudson Valley, nature, New York, New York Central Railroad, Pollepel Island, Revolutionary War, Storm King Mountain, West Point | 8 Comments

Pasadena: Then and Now

Posted on July 6, 2013 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

In 1888, the city of Pasadena, CA built an opera house at a cost of $125,000 ($3.15 million in 2012 dollars). The design used the Moorish revival style, which was very popular at the time. The building was razed in 1926.

The Royal Laundry building, which replaced the opera house in the 30s, was built by Gordon Kaufmann, the same architect who designed the Santa Anita racetrack and Los Angeles Times building. The Royal Laundry complex was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.

Posted in Architecture | Tagged art deco, Gordon Kaufmann, Moorish revival, Pasadena | 3 Comments

A Firecracker for Today

Posted on July 4, 2013 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

Related

Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations was published this week.

Posted in Books Publishing and Writing, Sex, Women men and fashion | Tagged Ava Gardner | 8 Comments

Happy 4th of July

Posted on July 4, 2013 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

Land of the free, home of the brave!

Related

Razib Khan on the neglected regionalism of the United States. (H/T Paleo Retiree)

Posted in Politics and Economics | Tagged American regionalism, secessionism | 7 Comments

“Straw Dogs” (2011)

Posted on July 2, 2013 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes:

I was a little wary about watching Rod Lurie’s remake of “Straw Dogs.” Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 thriller is a genuine landmark — one of the most notorious, controversial films in movie history, and for plenty of good reasons, most of them having to do with Peckinpah’s unique gifts, viewpoint and sensibility. (It was one of those hard-to-sort-your-feelings-out-about ’70s movies, like “A Clockwork Orange” and “Dirty Harry,” that really divided audiences and got people arguing. When’s the last time a new movie gave you a decent excuse for a good argument?) Lurie’s a talented director, but what could a remake of “Straw Dogs” possibly have to offer? It’s not as though the material or the plot were the major sources of the original film’s fascination. For better or worse, it’s “a Peckinpah film” before it’s anything else. Plus I had my usual anxieties about whether the remake might spoil my memories of the original.

Continue reading →

Posted in Movies | Tagged "Dustin Hoffman", "James Woods", "Susan George", horror, Kate Bosworth, remakes, Rod Lurie, Sam Peckinpah, thrillers | 11 Comments

The Propaganda The Corner ATM Machine Is Selling

Posted on July 2, 2013 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes:

This month in Diversity at the corner ATM machine:

How do so many people who champion diversity and multiculturalism persuade themselves that they’re radicals speaking daring, defiant truth to the cruel powers that be? Diversity and multiculturalism are the status quo.

Related

I shared some thoughts about the Church of Diversity.

Posted in Photography, Politics and Economics | Tagged banking, diversity, multiculturalism | 3 Comments

New Blog Features

Posted on July 2, 2013 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes:

In our eternal quest to keep our visitors entertained and provoked, we’ve come up with a few new features.

Because one of my great pleasures in life is passing along cool links, but also because I don’t want to clutter the joint up with too many of my own damn “Linkage” posts, I’ve created an updating-in-real-time box of ’em. You can follow my ongoing web adventures by looking at the right-hand column. Down a bit, past “Recent Posts” and “Recent Comments,” you’ll find “Paleo Retiree’s Linkage.” Check that shit out.

To make finding the interviews that we’ve done as user-friendly as possible, I’ve created a page with links directly to them. On it I’ve also provided links to interviews that I did back when I was blogging at 2Blowhwards. Lots of great stuff there to be explored.