No one understands better the importance of symbolic imagery than totalitarian governments. One day this photo will be revered in China.
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 – Wikipedia
The Unknown Rebel – AP photographer Jeff Widener. A lone protester delayed the tanks for over half an hour.
I really haven’t got much more excited about photography since going all in for VIDEO during the pandemic.
Many things irk me about photos online.
The majority of those you see are not very good — diminished so the image can load more quickly.
For my photos, best place to look is my Flickr account. Over 57,000 pics organized into albums.
THE photo site Instagram … I find super restrictive. And dumb.
Instagram wants to first display photos SQUARE. Here I cropped my 9×6 photo for that default.
Another crop.
Newer models of iPhone can be switched to my preferred 16:9.
These look great in landscape mode on a phone.
You might want to wait for the film version currently underway at Sony.
William Blake Crouch has already had several books adapted for popular culture.
Some feel this novel was constructed with the movie version in mind. He sold the film rights for $1.25m.
Jason Dessen, an atomic physicist, finds himself in a multiverse — traveling between alternative worlds in his home town Chicago.
Like time travel, it’s not easy to put together a coherent plot where characters meet themselves in other dimensions.
Crouch does a pretty good job at keeping the story interesting.
related – Dark Matter review – quantum fiction that’s delightfully unserious
Click PLAY or meet the author on YouTube.
If anyone rides away on my bike, I can track it down via the Apple Find My network.
Shane Miller tested WHERE to place the tracking device.
Open to the sky is best. Hidden inside the frame near useless.
I’m keeping mine attached to the bike in a reflector.
Also, it’s unlikely a thief will be alerted by their own phone — until they get home.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I haven’t seen the film yet.
The dead tree original is not particularly well written, in my opinion.
But I still recommend the book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century because of the importance of the subject.
2017 nonfiction by American journalist Jessica Bruder about the phenomenon of older Americans (mostly White) who, following the Great (George W Bush) Recession from 2007 to 2009 and onward, adopting transient lifestyles travelling around the United States in search of seasonal work.
Bruder encounters an array of appealing characters. They are portrayed with respect and admiration. Some have become friends for whom she has a deep affection. …
The best part of Jessica Bruder’s story is when she goes to work with the houseless at a sugar beet plant. Then at an Amazon warehouse. Brutal.
Reducing your possessions to just those you can carry with you is Voluntary (or involuntary) Simplicity.
My kind of people.
In fact, campground host sounds to me like not a bad gig.
I like it.
A profane Groundhog Day.
Weird. Original. Smart dialogue.
97% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Russian Doll is an American comedy-drama streaming television series, created by Natasha Lyonne, Leslye Headland, and Amy Poehler …
… follows Nadia Vulvokov (Lyonne), a game developer who repeatedly dies and relives the same night in an ongoing time loop and tries to solve it …
One Step Behind is a 1997 crime novel by Swedish author Henning Mankell, the 7th in his acclaimed Inspector Wallander series.
Excellent.
An intriguing plot with Wallander facing serious personal health problems.
Two young women and one young man, inexplicably dressed as the nobility of Sweden did during the reign of Gustavus III, are found dead, each slain with a single bullet, their bodies half consumed by animals in the wilderness.
Wallander is horrified when he makes a connection between the crime and his close friend and colleague Svedberg, and after the latter is found savagely murdered …
related – Director Ingmar Bergman was the author’s father-in-law.
I’ve always been a NOTE taker.
Always put together TO-DO lists.
Not always skilled at following through. 😶
For the past few months I’ve been trying NOTION. It’s free for basics.
More complicated than I need. But it is cool.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
It does synch perfectly with iPhone. And I can use the IOS app even when out of service.
NOTION ranked #1 on this list of Best Note-Taking Apps 2021.
I’ve used different notebooks and apps over the decades. Most recently I’ve been trying to stick to the default Apple products:
Love the simplicity and compatibility with the Fruit Company ecosystem of brainwashed.
I’ve yet to find a calendar I like. I’m using Google Calendar — but don’t really enjoy it. Right now I’m trying to switch to Apple Calendar, which I also don’t like.
I watched all 4 seasons of Wallander starring Kenneth Branagh as the eponymous police inspector.
12 episodes, each more like a film than TV show. Shot in Sweden over ten years.
All 12 are great. If anything, I like the final shows best as Kurt learns he has type 2 Diabetes. And fears he’s going to be facing dementia.
Can he stay at work?
Obviously, Branagh is an excellent actor. He’s been nominated for 5 Academy Awards and 5 Golden Globes.
But I’ve always been slightly turned off by egomania.
That said, for me Wallander is his best work I’ve seen. He won the 2017 International Emmy Best Performance by an Actor for the role.
Click PLAY or get some glimpses on YouTube.
Blood Test, published in 1986, is the second novel by Jonathan Kellerman. It is told from the first-person point of view of Dr. Alex Delaware, a child psychologist who is Kellerman’s main character in the majority of his novels. …
The novel’s primary plot centers on a 5-year-old boy, Woody Swope, who is gravely ill, whose parents have refused to allow the one treatment that could save his life. …
… Woody disappears from his bed in the hospital …
Though published long ago, I’m astonished how contemporary this book feels.
One of those weird California sex cults is included.
Rick McCharles 