RhaenysBee

Ticks. Ticks. Ticks. not sure what traumatized me more - school lecture about tick season precautions in second grade or Willem Dafoe’s tick infested hand in Antichrist. Nah, I’m sure, it was the lecture.

Very happy belated birthday to you! Lovely gifts and gesture that the brother picked things that made you so happy. also your cordless drill reminds me, I have a cordless vacuum now! After looking for.. it has to be years, I finally committed on a 25% off sale day and bought a mid range one. The nozzle lights up so one can vacuum in the dark and/or actually see dirt on the floor. I find that groundbreaking. It made me so happy.

I can see what you mean by the first part, I don’t agree with it as an axiom. I’m not sure I understand the second part. Yep, and that high quality beginning just set my expectations at a much higher standard than the one the ending achieved.

Got back on a reading streak in the past few weeks and enjoyed the following reads and listens: The Twist of a Knife - this is, I think, the penultimate installment of the Hawthorn series with the last novel coming out some time this autumn. A lovely, reliable, funny whodunnit that pretends to be real on a masterful level. I love Anthony Horowitz. Tales from the Cafe - I bought this 200 pages book in Italy for €15. Not mad, because I love to buy physical books on holiday, but ouch nonetheless. Especially at this exchange rate. * moan-moan * I loved the first novel of this series, and had the same experience with this one. It’s a slow burn, it’s a slight culture shock just because it’s so different from the western literature I grew up on and read (I guess I should branch out more toward Japanese authors and their works). But then it arrives and it hits hard and before I know it I’m crying even though I was thinking hmm it’s kinda dry, it’s kinda dull just half an hour ago. Beautiful beautiful storytelling. Worth every cent I spent on the copy. Poor Things - I bought this one on the trip too. It was an impulse buy because the selection was huge, I was short on time. I saw it, I recognized the title and Emma Stone’s face, I recalled that it was something unconventional, I committed and paid. I don’t even know when was the last time I was this happy with a purchase. The book is delightfully creative (yes I’m 100% sold on the fiction masquerading as fact genre), unpredictable, endearing but also macabre (and I’m 100% not sold on Victorian gothic) in the best way possible. I wholeheartedly recommend it and I couldn’t have chosen better in that odd 10 minutes I spent in the bookshop. Empire - I listened to this because the Ascent of Money is only available in an abridged version on audible, so I thought, let’s try this one. I learned a lot, I enjoyed the style. So I went on a Niall Ferguson bender and listened to… The Square and The Tower - this one was a bit convoluted for my brain, and I did get lost on his train of thought more often than not. The basic concept of hierarchies v networks was interesting enough though. Still determined to find a full version of Ascent of Money to listen to. So after all this, Audible recommended to me… Centuries of Change and Ian Mortimer instantly became my resident favorite historian. I loved this so much. Learned so much, was so happy with perspective, the structured, methodical approach, the style, the myth debunking. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Which led me to… Medieval Horizons - which is a slightly different arch and structure but mostly the same perspective, trivia, message, etc. enjoyed this one a lot too. I do thing centuries of change is a better written book if one goes down the rabbit hole, and doubles down on the topic, this one’s worth the listen as well.

I added The Gentleman to my sickday(s) watchlist. I tried to figure out if and how it was related to the movie by the same title by the same direction. It’s not. ‘Kay. I suppose he just really likes this title? It was rather fun for the first 5-6 episodes. Then I kinda got tired of it because it was buildup on buildup on buildup and I found myself asking, To what? For me the magnitude of the climax was disproportionate to the amount and complexity of all that buildup. The way I see it, we didn’t quite arrive anywhere surprising, impactful, meanigful, fun, punchy. It was much ado for very little. I like the dynamic, the cinematography, the editing, the style of storytelling, the visual experience, I even liked the acting quite a bit. I certainly enjoyed the whole thing more than The Gentleman movie. If they ever made a season 2 I would probably tune in out of curiosity.

Today I didn’t work and napped for a sum of 5 hours in the afternoon. I feel like a different person. This is the most glorious feeling I have experienced in months. I think I might be actually rested. Insane.

Okay no, this is ridiculous. Up until some point it was semi-believable what’s been going on in this Africa storyline in 1923, but we are so long past that.

So I’ve been ill - again… here’s the strep binge fest rundown: The Full Monty 1997 - rather short, very British, very retro, absolutely heartwarming. It claims to be a comedy but it’s so much more. The Full Monty 2023 - probably the first time ever when I say that it was worth to make the reboot. Beautiful, heart wrenching, relatable, lovable, intelligent, balanced little show. I will actually rewatch this. Downton Abbey New Era - big screen format just doesn’t work when you have a cast of 20+ regulars and you even have to squeez out a plot. I can’t not love it because I love Downton, but it lacks the depth, the nuance, the richness of the series. Still, a sweet collection of compulsory downton moments and tropes. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - so I did watch this the night I had fever and a migraine so I was half asleep and half out of it. It was sweet, the cast is amazing, but it lacked a hook and the pace was a bit too slow. Recommended it to my mum, exactly her cup of tea. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - I liked this one more, perhaps because a lot of the character stories arrived in this one (took two films with the pace). I was also feeling less shitty when I watched which may contribute. But I’m not okay watching Maggie Smith “die” twice within a couple days. 1923 - welllll. I watched 6 episodes… I have feelings. Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren are wonderful. I love them. But Ford is a little bit frail and doesn’t command the same screen presence he did even 10-15 years ago or the one Costner indisputably does. That impacts how you buy into the Dutton family power and position. Mirren course corrects this a lot though. Jerome Flynn fails to give me the villain vibes. And then there’s Spencer and Alexandra. Now I love the Africa bits, I love that it’s not CGI but real drone shots and filming tricks. Breathtaking. I like Spencer, even though he is neither Costner nor Luke Grimes. I think it’s the hairstyle, or the mustache … I digress. Alexandra is an interesting one. I really like the character, very much fits the Dutton woman archetype but still playful and fun. But there’s something about the delivery, like they are trying too hard. There are these odd little moments when it feels overacted and disingenuous and it snaps me right out of the story. I don’t know if it’s a direction because they want a stark juxtaposition to broody quiet rough Spencer or the actress is still trying to find her tune with the character. I don’t know. I both love the character and feel like she’s nails on a chalkboard.The themes, the set are too similar to Yellowstone. I kinda feel like with the history text book in fifth grade, there were foraging and animal skin tents and cave drawings and domesticating dogs and horses, next chapter, bamm, Sumer city states. How did that happen? So yeah, I’m looking for what happened between 1894 and say 1914, if anybody would, thank you. As for the native American girls school storyline… I watch this gratuitously brutal and completely disjointed substory for half, HALF the entire show before it finally turned out how it relates to any of the main story. Why? Why wouldn’t you hint sooner? Why wouldn’t you do something, anything narratively to avoid the sensation that it’s a separate series within the series? I’m not saying it’s not good, I enjoy it, but I am saying for me it comes third after 1883 and Yellowstone.

I finished 1883. Or more like it finished me. It ripped out my heart, chewed it up raw and retched it right out. I spent 95% of the last episode in convulsive sobs. It hit home and it hit hard. It was beautiful and brutal and beautiful. It was indeed miles ahead of Yellowstone. Then again, very different goals with those two shows. Well, I will go now and try to think about something other than death. Like... I need a grocery delivery in the morning.

I’m watching 1883 and it’s not what I expected, but better in a lot of ways. I respect and appreciate that it’s not a classical western, that it’s not the same as Yellowstone set in a different time with a different cast and different costumes. The Duttons are the same, in terms of character archetypes, values and personality traits but that does more for the story than it takes away from the characters. The slow, melancholic but raw, powerful atmosphere is beautiful, to the point that I can cry multiple times per episode, quite different from the Yellowstone vibe. Male character writing is sublime. Cinematography and directing is sublime. The on the nose narration by Elsa irks me to no end, but other than that, the themes speak to me and touch me more the Yellowstone. At the beginning I rather disliked Elsa, because sassy maiden archetypes generally annoy the life out of me, but as the story progresses I understand and appreciate why she is the narrator and why it couldn’t be any other way. Overall I’m happy with this show albeit it’s a heavier watch than Yellowstone. I suppose that’s what makes it more meaningful and more beautiful. I don’t suppose I included spoilers.

Yep, though the frequency is certainly shrinking to occasionally. Awwww, what great news! Huge congrats to you for such progress! You are slaying that dissertation, I’m sure it’ll be finished for good soon. How will you celebrate? spring is the same, in that it’s essentially summer. I’ve never been a huge fan of the heat, especially its coming on so suddenly and since hormone therapy, I’m even less so. But I really enjoy the sun, the birds chirping, the blue skies. I’m doing fine, I’ve been back on a reading streak and had luck with picking some really lovely books too. Took a little Easter trip to Italy with my dad and his new crew. It reminded me that I actually love traveling I just can’t really afford it anymore I also got through a very stressful work period and now the back pain it yielded is beginning to subside as well (at least I’m hoping the back pain was stress related, not anything else - but just in case, beside the hoping, I’m awaiting a CT scan too). And so the whole ordeal yields more than extra trips to the doctor’s, I’m hyping myself to ask for a raise. Which I don’t expect to get, but it should at least train me to be braver in life. I also regularly swim now, and i don’t get how and why I lived without this thing for 17 years.

Well if the rumors that Kevin Costner is leaving the show are true, than things will go downhill pretty quickly, I expect. But it was a fine fine experience while it lasted and I can move on to the Harrison Ford spinoff now. No expectations for those though. And sure, I don’t literally love everything about the show, there were some dumbass elements, but overall I would rate it at a solid 9/10 for the characters, the dialogue, the themes, the nuance, the intelligence of the writing, the cinematography, the animals the costumes and the overarching story so it safely falls into the love love love category even though I’m not trying to pretend that it’s perfect.

I finished Yellowstone and aside from some small scale structuring issues and a couple abandoned side plots, it was freaking phenomenal and my most favorite tv experience ever since the 2022 Buffy binge. I love love love love everything about this show and I even appreciate and respect the parts I didnt love. If I still knew how that it works, I would now exchange my board avatar for Beth, because it’s been a while I had a new crazy blondie avatar. Also no other tv show ever had me have three simultaneous tv crushes on the characters. I think the max had always been two.

Im still in because I somehow think I’ll be able to conjure up the time

Each to their own struggle. I’m glad to be getting close to the pre Covid weight. In the past four years I just couldn’t put on weight for my life no matter what I did, some shit or the other hit the fan and I lost the couple pounds I gained over months overnight. Really really determined to put on at least 5 more pounds this year. Sweets are the most difficult to eliminate, I feel you there. Sounds lovely, congrats on his Phd! Oh I miss friend group get togethers. They are just too rare these days. 30s, I guess… or I don’t have enough friends who knows.

Apparently my sister, the pickiest eater you will ever meet, describes me to other people as someone who “bakes great cookies”. Consider me flattered.

I started watching Yellowstone. I.. uhh… whoooh.. whoa… damn… I just… damn... Kevin Costner and Luke Grimes broodily striding and riding through scenic backgrounds emanating power and testosterone and I was bought in 20 minutes into episode 1. Boy oh boy, soppy D class rom com for Valentine’s Day’s officially off the table, give me Kevin Costner, Luke Grimes, nature shots and horses. I’m sure the story will be fine too. also I love the trans generational dynamics, especially when it comes to Kayce’s son. It’s sooooooo sinister and dark. Love this thing.

Yes that’s what I meant too. I find it barbaric that these added holiday days should be worked off on Saturdays. But it’s nice that your school will dedicate the day for a uni fair and at least educational films, still better than maths tests like we used to have Well I’m enjoying the fact that some of my extra small jeans are getting too tight, so that should be a motivator to keep at it. One of these days I may even hit my pre Covid golden age weight and have a healthy BMI yay for a productive day! There’s nothing like going to bed with fresh linen on..! Just feels and smells so nice. Oh I need to buy a new bed linen set as well (I accidentally shrunk a duvet cover in the washing machine). Hope the weekend’s been going great!

My dad was at one point rather obsessed with these half historical fiction half docu things about the Ottoman Empire I watched a couple 10-15 minute bits of it with him pre Covid, but the format is just too weird for me. Yes there are plans for a HP series with Rowling involved in the project. Since she was involved in the films as well and she published the Cursed Child, I’m not sure that’s guarantee of a solid outcome. If it’s ever produced and I’m around (my therapist says I need to a stop talking about my future in conditional sentences and he’s right, so). If it’s ever produced, I will tune in just because the first attempt at adaptation did no justice to the story and the characters, so I would like to see them try again.

Oh also, I watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince last night while ironing. I was halfway through but I could write a 5 pages essay on how absolutely terrible it is even though it’s one of the better Harry Potter movies. You know, if any big millennial franchise and pop culture phenomenon should get a remake, it’s Harry Potter. The movies beyond the first two, generously three are atrociously bad. And I’m still rewatching Buffy. On the rewatch, yes I hear you, Dawn is horrible. But that aside, my brain wants to bathe in a Buffy script all day every day. I want a lecture series about Buffy. I want a writing master class based on Buffy.

The Silver Linings Playbook is about so much. (Or you know, I can read so much into it) Sports impact on sports fans lives is just one dimension of control over one’s life. Pat’s dad thinks it’s the Eagles season that stirs his and his family’s fate, Pat thinks it’s Nikki and repairing his relationship with her. Tiffany is the disrupter who is outside of the norm, whatever that norm is for every character and shows that being outside of the norm isn’t necessarily bad or to be frowned upon because sometimes it takes disruption to achieve balance and step forward. Her game night monologue points out that the Eagles are lucky because of her presence in Pat’s life, which is of course bull and her own manipulative way to get Pat back into dancing, but it’s the whole point of the movie. These outside events can be interpreted in any way, and one can spin any narrative. Life is about how you interpret outside events and your own choices, not some predetermined or directly linked sequence of signs or Eagles wins. And for this reason normal Is relative, Ronnie and Veronica’s normal and perfect family life make them miserable and Pat’s desperate attempts to get back to normal only spiral him out and Tiffany who is labeled as the crazy person is the one to (unwittingly) roll the crew onto the right track. You can and should take control of your life, and no matter how outside of norm it may be, it can be good, meaningful and rewarding. It also has the best vibes and most lovable characters. I love that movie so much.

Ah so it was one of those modern adaptations? some years ago I saw a modern adaptation of Hamlet, it was mind-blowing in the positive sense. But I remember the modern adaptation of Hair from high school, it was…. something to see a story about 60s America and hippie culture with all white sets and costumes… I guess this minimalist approach can go both ways. And first row balcony is one of the best places to sit Nooooooooooooo! I thought only this country still practiced this barbaric custom to “make up” for holiday days by working a weekend day. ugh that’s bad, bad, bad. Well strength and loads of coffee to you and the cranky teenagers in those Saturday classes! Just random bits and bobs, funky socks, fuzzy slippers, a couple sets of those trendy glass types , because I have this mental image of me having pink breakfast smoothie from a trendy glass wearing fuzzy socks and something pink. It’s entirely silly but fun and somehow healing. No class, just me swimming at a pool, at my own little pace because I have the fitness level of a snail. First time I went I thought, okay, it’s been 17 years, let’s do a quarter of what I used to back in school…. Ahaha. So next time it was even less and with a break in-between. I do want to work it up to the level that I can do 1000m in one go and that’s still nowhere middle school Rhaenys’s regular swim practice. Oh well, it’s the intent that counts.

America Ferrara’s performance wasn’t Oscar worthy either. (I’ll refrain from forming an opinion about Ryan Gosling, because I’m not a fan of him, I heartily disliked Ken in the movie and I loathed the movie itself and that’s just one too many biases) Now what I don’t get is getting a bunch of nominations and not being like yay cool we did a great job. No, it’s like, GIVEMEMOREWHYISNTITMOREIDESERVEMOREIMOFFENDED. Come on… Barbie couldn’t be more celebrated if it tried, it was a global phenomenon.

Nice! I’ve never seen that in theater before. How was it? Yay for long weekends! Hope you enjoy some down time! Indeed and thank you! Well it was payday today so the self indulgence definitely started swimming is great, it’s been 17ish years since I stopped swimming, never thought I’d love getting back to it so much.

Im not the only one who thinks Margot Robbie’s performance as Barbie wasn’t Oscar worthy, right? Then again, I don’t think anything about Barbie, aside from set and costume design, visual effects and maybe music, and definitely PR team, is award worthy. Either way, no, Margot Robbie wasn’t snubbed of anything and Barbie (along with Margot Robbie) is likely the most celebrated and hyped movie of the first half of the 2020s, and definitely the pop culture peak of the year.