1. The mojito cupcake at Kickass is not kidding. It is not quite truthful to say that we went promptly for lunch at Blue Shirt Café because I needed something in my system that wasn't rum and sugar, but it is not quite a stretch, either.
2. Following an interlude at Dave's Fresh Pasta in which some fresh pasta was purchased and some foodstuffs not commonly available in this country were stared at with respect (preserved lemons, lardo, condiments I didn't recognize),![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rushthatspeaks showed me True Stories (1986). I cannot overstate how much I love this film. Attempts to describe it will descend into incoherent flailing about John Goodman and Papa Legba and the Lawnmower Brigade. (The conspiracy theory revival meeting. The dueling auctioneers. The roaming tribe of children in their 4-H shirts, singing.) I may try anyway when I am less tired, but for the moment suffice to say that I would cheerfully rewatch it anytime, anywhere, and that may include right after watching it the first time. The one shortcoming: I have been informed there is no such thing as a good non-bootleg version of the soundtrack.
. . . I'm taking suggestions, internet.
3. After weeks of hiatus, Viking Zen and I finally managed to meet for Movie Night. The Legend of Korra is currently streaming for free on Nickelodeon's website. We watched the first three episodes. I am just going to geek out here, all right? There is all the development I wanted from the worldbuilding and more—the explosive cross-pollination of technologies and cultures (and genetics) that was inevitable from the finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005–2008) means that the seventy years between series have taken the world from steampunk to a beautiful fusion of the 1920's and '30's with varying points of real-world origin, most visibly to me Shanghai, New York, and Hong Kong, but I'm sure there are allusions all over the place I simply don't have the knowledge to pick up on. There are characters wearing what trenchcoats would look like if they had evolved from hanbok. (Plausible extrapolation of clothing! Who does that?) I want the soundtrack—the music is a similarly alt-world version of big-band jazz. There are airships. There are elevated trains. There are slums and street food and media blitzes. The introductions to each episode of Avatar were spoken by a character who came from a culture that was not illiterate, but heavily invested in oral tradition; the recaps in Korra are newsreels. And it is an older show, more immediately violent than Avatar, more politically and emotionally complex. An obvious villain is spearheading a movement with an entirely legitimate and unaddressed grievance; the latter cannot be dismissed no matter how disturbing the actions of the former. Korra on her first day in Republic City takes down a trio of racketeers collecting their weekly protection money from a hard-up merchant and finds herself under arrest because, in the process, she completely trashed the street. She's not a diffident or an accommodating protagonist. She's aggressive, impatient, used to a prodigy's quickness and an Avatar's privilege; she tends to kick ass first and remember later that she should have been taking names. I find her a delight to watch, especially since the show is aware that her two-fisted naïveté is both problematic and endearing. There are odd resonances with Baccano (2007), probably because of the jazz and the frequent fight scenes; I found myself thinking that I wouldn't be at all surprised if Jacuzzi wandered into a crowd scene while Nice blew something up (and if someone vidded this, I would be so entertained). There is also a major character who was a gangland accountant when he was younger and I liked him even before that was revealed. I don't know most of the voice actors in this cast, but one of the secondary characters is voiced by Lance Henriksen. (I recognized him instantly. I am always glad he's working.) It is very clearly the same world as Avatar, the same creative team and the same attention even to written language—I can't read the newspaper headlines, but I'm sure someone else can and will; it is not the same show. So far, I really like the one it is.
Bed.
2. Following an interlude at Dave's Fresh Pasta in which some fresh pasta was purchased and some foodstuffs not commonly available in this country were stared at with respect (preserved lemons, lardo, condiments I didn't recognize),
rushthatspeaks showed me True Stories (1986). I cannot overstate how much I love this film. Attempts to describe it will descend into incoherent flailing about John Goodman and Papa Legba and the Lawnmower Brigade. (The conspiracy theory revival meeting. The dueling auctioneers. The roaming tribe of children in their 4-H shirts, singing.) I may try anyway when I am less tired, but for the moment suffice to say that I would cheerfully rewatch it anytime, anywhere, and that may include right after watching it the first time. The one shortcoming: I have been informed there is no such thing as a good non-bootleg version of the soundtrack.. . . I'm taking suggestions, internet.
3. After weeks of hiatus, Viking Zen and I finally managed to meet for Movie Night. The Legend of Korra is currently streaming for free on Nickelodeon's website. We watched the first three episodes. I am just going to geek out here, all right? There is all the development I wanted from the worldbuilding and more—the explosive cross-pollination of technologies and cultures (and genetics) that was inevitable from the finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005–2008) means that the seventy years between series have taken the world from steampunk to a beautiful fusion of the 1920's and '30's with varying points of real-world origin, most visibly to me Shanghai, New York, and Hong Kong, but I'm sure there are allusions all over the place I simply don't have the knowledge to pick up on. There are characters wearing what trenchcoats would look like if they had evolved from hanbok. (Plausible extrapolation of clothing! Who does that?) I want the soundtrack—the music is a similarly alt-world version of big-band jazz. There are airships. There are elevated trains. There are slums and street food and media blitzes. The introductions to each episode of Avatar were spoken by a character who came from a culture that was not illiterate, but heavily invested in oral tradition; the recaps in Korra are newsreels. And it is an older show, more immediately violent than Avatar, more politically and emotionally complex. An obvious villain is spearheading a movement with an entirely legitimate and unaddressed grievance; the latter cannot be dismissed no matter how disturbing the actions of the former. Korra on her first day in Republic City takes down a trio of racketeers collecting their weekly protection money from a hard-up merchant and finds herself under arrest because, in the process, she completely trashed the street. She's not a diffident or an accommodating protagonist. She's aggressive, impatient, used to a prodigy's quickness and an Avatar's privilege; she tends to kick ass first and remember later that she should have been taking names. I find her a delight to watch, especially since the show is aware that her two-fisted naïveté is both problematic and endearing. There are odd resonances with Baccano (2007), probably because of the jazz and the frequent fight scenes; I found myself thinking that I wouldn't be at all surprised if Jacuzzi wandered into a crowd scene while Nice blew something up (and if someone vidded this, I would be so entertained). There is also a major character who was a gangland accountant when he was younger and I liked him even before that was revealed. I don't know most of the voice actors in this cast, but one of the secondary characters is voiced by Lance Henriksen. (I recognized him instantly. I am always glad he's working.) It is very clearly the same world as Avatar, the same creative team and the same attention even to written language—I can't read the newspaper headlines, but I'm sure someone else can and will; it is not the same show. So far, I really like the one it is.
Bed.
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