Friday, December 29, 2023

I hope you, like me, are having a pleasant, lazy Twixmas. Let's close out the year the way we started it - with a list of movies and a nature photo (and some other stuff):

Item 1: a link

We like big art around here, especially when it's built to last (and be inscrutable). So you can probably guess how we feel about the “Time Pyramid” (“Zeitpyramide”), which won't even be completed until 3183. Locals in Wemding, Germany will add a concrete block once a decade, until there are 120 of them. Eventually it will (probably not) look like this:

I'll keep an eye on this project and provide updates as events warrant.

Item 2: a list

Best movies I watched in 2023, ranked:

1. Casablanca* (1942)
2. Barry Lyndon (1975)
3. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
4. Mission: Impossible - Fallout* (2018)
5. Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
6. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
7. Mad Max: Fury Road* (2015)
8. The Sting* (1973)
9. Tár (2022)
10. Avatar: The Way of Water* (2022)
11. The Adventures of Tintin* (2011)
12. RRR (2022)
13. Asteroid City (2023)
14. Mission: Impossible* (1996)
15. The Fabelmans (2022)
16. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (1962)
17. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
18. Creed* (2015)

* rewatched

Honorable mentions: Past Lives (2023), The Boy and the Heron (2023), Poor Things (2023), The Creator (2023), the Wes Anderson Roald Dahl shorts on Netflix (2023), Oppenheimer (2023), Barbie (2023), Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023), Beau is Afraid (2023). Laura (1944), Out of Sight* (1998), Michael Clayton* (2007), Logan* (2017), The Death of Stalin* (2017), Jaws (1975), The Fugitive* (1993), Tenet* (2020), Witness (1985), The Witch (2015), Raiders of the Lost Ark* (1981), Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation* (2015), The Verdict (1982), No Bears (2022), All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022), 2046 (2022), Three Days of the Condor (1975), Marcel the Shell With Shoes On (2021), Rocky (1976), Wings of Desire (1987), Salesman (1969), Italianamerican (1974), Captain America: The First Avenger* (2011), Captain America: The Winter Soldier* (2014), Memories of Murder (2003)

Item 3: a media recommendation

Item 4: word of the week

Shako

He wished he looked very tough and important in his full ceremonial dress, but deep down he knew that the big, shiny shako made his head look like a toilet.

Item 5: a photograph

See ya!

Thanks for reading. See you in 2024.