sovay: (Sovay: David Owen)
sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2023-11-12 01:26 am

I am spinning by the ocean all alone

I have my first pair of new shoes in something like six years! They were the last pair of Rockports in the store, but they were in my size. Hestia sniffed them all over as soon as I got home. Clearly they smelled like very strange cat. Have some links.

1. Mike Donahue's Troy (2023) is a nicely sketched, slightly absurdist, fortunately not cringe comedy slice of very New York life about the nonetheless universal experience of having far too much information about a neighbor without actually knowing them at all. Dylan Baker in just about sixty seconds of knocking on the wrong apartment door almost steals the sixteen-minute film.

2. Either Wendell Corey did less radio than I would have expected from his voice or less of it has survived onto the internet, but he's terrific in Inner Sanctum's "Strange Passenger" (1952), unraveling steadily over twenty-two minutes without ever flatlining into hysteria, just a constant erosion of nerves culminating in the wonderful hopelessness of a little gulp of breath as he catches himself singing with relief at having rid himself of his persistent phantom hitch-hiker, because it's the same tune that's threaded itself through the night's haunting and if it's coming out of his mouth, it's not over yet. It makes an instructive contrast with something like McGarry and His Mouse's "To Catch a Counterfeiter" (1946), where his eponymous rookie detective audibly couldn't outsmart a bag of rocks.

3. Over on Bluesky, [personal profile] spatch has compiled a trucker film festival inspired by tracking the pop-cultural fallout of Smokey and the Bandit (1977). I had no idea it was such a specific subgenre. I am better versed in its predecessors like Hell Drivers (1957) and Thunder Road (1958).

I knew Iceland was preparing for a major eruption, but I just found out about the increased activity under the Campi Flegrei. Where I have been, on account of both of my trips to Italy centering around Naples. Bacoli was where a fellow classics student and I stalled out on the side of a hill and had to be rescued by a stranger on a motorcycle, which almost certainly would not have happened if we had been driving in a less ludicrous fashion than him steering and me shifting, but in our defense it worked great until we encountered a stop sign on an upward grade.
moon_custafer: Russian Futurism explodes (explodity)

[personal profile] moon_custafer 2023-11-12 12:13 pm (UTC)(link)
I think having somebody else shifting would be the only way I could drive a standard. I was taught on an automatic (and haven’t driven in this century, but I’m pretty sure I still have muscle memory for the steering wheel and pedals). I *was* given a grounding in how to deal with icy conditions.
ethelmay: (Default)

[personal profile] ethelmay 2023-11-12 10:45 pm (UTC)(link)
It sounds a little bit like Mary Stewart, except you wouldn't catch any Mary Stewart characters not being able to drive a stick. Well, unless they had a really good excuse, like being ten or something.
davidgillon: A pair of crutches, hanging from coat hooks, reflected in a mirror (Default)

[personal profile] davidgillon 2023-11-12 03:10 pm (UTC)(link)
The Guardian's had a bunch of articles this year on the Campi Flegrei (and related stuff such as the three new undersea volcanoes found in the Bay of Naples), googling "guardian naples volcano" should get them all of them, but their most recent was https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/05/italy-supervolcano-campi-flegrei-naples-earthquakes-evacuation-plans
asakiyume: created by the ninja girl (Default)

[personal profile] asakiyume 2023-11-12 03:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Troy was very cute ^_^

And thanks for the heads up that [personal profile] spatch is on Bluesky!
Edited (just wanted to add that second sentence) 2023-11-12 15:59 (UTC)
asakiyume: (miroku)

[personal profile] asakiyume 2023-11-12 09:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I figured that Bluesky's format, being like Twitter's, would likely be a no-go for you.
asakiyume: created by the ninja girl (Default)

[personal profile] asakiyume 2023-11-12 11:53 pm (UTC)(link)
I definitely hope so too.
asakiyume: (hugs and kisses)

[personal profile] asakiyume 2023-11-12 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)
And re: Troy, I liked how both people in the couple we focused on were concerned for Troy in their own ways. Sweet!
gwynnega: (Basil Rathbone)

[personal profile] gwynnega 2023-11-13 01:48 am (UTC)(link)
Troy is very relatable, though I wasn't expecting some of the twists! Dylan Baker is wonderful in it.
choco_frosh: (Default)

[personal profile] choco_frosh 2023-11-13 02:34 am (UTC)(link)
I said "Naples supervolcano"; my [it's complicated] replied, I think verbatim, "What."
choco_frosh: (Default)

[personal profile] choco_frosh 2023-11-13 03:16 am (UTC)(link)
I don't think they knew about the "Bay of Naples = caldera" thing, just as much to the point.