If you have to explain it, it isn’t art.#
Joe Biden's focus so far has been on getting the trains to run on time, figuratively speaking. #
I'm now loading all the posts from 1997 to 2010 into the Daytona database. For all the time involved, it's amazing how consistent the format is. In the early part of the archive, most posts had no created attribute. Then starting around 2004 most did, but I think it was only until 2017 that they all did. So I had to revise the conversion script to synthesize them if they weren't there.#
I couldn't watch the new Matrix movie, but I did get about 1/2 way through. If you haven't seen it, or you have and liked it, then don't read the rest of this post. I like story-telling in movies, and the first Matrix in 1999, was one of the best movies ever, as a story. It's a puzzle. Red pill, blue pill, who is Agent Smith, and The Oracle, and why does Morpheus think Neo is The One. And wtf is the Matrix! It's a beautiful story, and the characters -- young Keanu and Carrie-Anne, Hugo Weaving, Lawrence Fishburne. In the 2021 version, they recast a bunch of them and spent huge amounts of time explaining why. Who cares. When I switched it off last night, the characters were still yapping about what changed and why. It reminded me of the Deadwood movie, a movie whose plot didn't start until they finished re-introducing all the main characters. And then they had about 40 minutes for something unmemorable, even stupid. Anyway I will finish Matrix 4, if only because maybe there's something worthwhile there. And I know some people really liked it, I don't understand why, but I respect that. Maybe sequels like this shouldn't be made, or maybe no one has figured out yet how to do it. Or maybe all movies these days have to be all about action and narration without acting or plots getting in the way. Instead I watched The Piano on Netflix, a wonderful movie, with almost no dialog, and no characters insisting that I hear their explanation for what happened. You get to figure it out for yourself.#I haven't heard NPR talk about the failure of American democracy once. Lots of times they've blamed Biden for all kinds of loose shit. But never ever have they even mentioned that our democracy is almost over. #
I wish Donald McNeil were still doing a podcast at the New York Times or anywhere for that matter when there is a big change in the way the virus is behaving. Maybe a tech billionaire could set him up. #