RhaenysBee

I’m watching Euphoria which is one of the weirdest piece of entertainment I’ve encountered. I’m not saying it’s any less realistic than the rest of the teen dramas like Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars, because boy those had nothing to do with real high school life either. But this one is so dark and simultaneously has these absurd fits of comedy. I’m still undecided if it all works out and comes together somehow or it’s just all over the place in terms of tone with no excuse. What I can say is that Zendaya’s Emmy was very well deserved.

Well, I’ve been meaning to share my swimming journey. I used to swim in middle school, nothing serious just practice twice a week, local amateur competitions for swimming pool ice cream and the sheer joy of being in the water. After what stretched into an inexplicable 17 year gap I started swimming again in January. The first time went like, let’s do 500m in one go without warmup because hey I used to swim in middle school. Yeah. Right. I could not lift my arms for the rest of the day and since I was stupid enough to do this the day before getting blood work, it also blew my results and my liver enzymes were out of the roof (they went right back down in 6 day when we repeated the test, they are fine). So for these reasons, the second time went like, let’s do 150m, take a 10 minute break and let’s do 150m again. Which is a joke, it’s like 10 minutes in the pool, it’s kindergarten swim practice. Never mind. We will take it slow, and work it up to 1000m (which is still less than half my middle school swim capabilities), no matter how much time it takes, that much I should be able to do at least. Third time, 200, break, 200. Then 250 break 250, 300 break 300, etc. when I was I getting really f’ingbored and annoyed with the breaks, I skipped them and switched swim styles to force myself to slow down (I’m significantly slower in anything that’s not breast stroke). So I started doing 500 breast, 150 back, 150 breast (I hate free style and my arms are still way to weak for butterfly, which I used to love too) and built from there. For the past two weeks I’ve been steadily doing 1000m split 6:4 between breast and back. I will do two more weeks maintaining this and then we are onto 750 breast and 500 back. I love swimming, it makes me feel liberated, powerful and at peace. anyway, this long and tedious ramble is trying to say that fitness can be build (back) up no matter how small you have to start (And yes I know my 1000 m swim goal is minuscule compared to people who go from couch to half marathons in a year. Good for them, but my little 1000m goal is my little success that makes me proud and happy and takes me back to a part of myself I used to love and that’s what counts). Yay?

Catching up on work at the weekend. A bizarre concept, because what have I been doing all week that I have to catch up on work? More work. There’s an odd balance of equal shame and virtue in catching up on work at the weekend. Because Aw you have to work on the weekend you poor thing that’s awful, wow employers do take such savage advantage of one these days! And because Aw damn, really, can’t you do something about it like delegate more or smarten up your time management? But at the same time, it’s also, Wow you’re working at the weekend, damn you must be important and irreplaceable that you absolutely have to work, way to go! As well as Damm aren’t you super dedicated and motivated and committed, way to go! Bleh. Can someone please decide and tell me which way I’m supposed feel about it, so I can have one less cognitive dissonance to navigate? In fact I’m fine with either option as long as it’s not the personality splitting coexistence of both. Boy I better get that raise I asked for.

Today the cardiologist, the sweetest female doctor I have ever met, asked me what I do for a living. I told her I worked in leadership development. Ah so what kinda software do I develop? It’s not software, basically we train the management. Ah and whatever does one develop on them? Well… Ah is it like communication and the like? Yep, communication and the like. Ah. Imagine, this poor woman with her vast knowledge that she applies every day to save lives must have never heard anything so dumb, insignificant and meaningless to make a livelihood as developing managers in communication and the like. The sheer dumb corporate hubris to spend 50 hours of several people every week on these things.

I just finished the book, and flipping through the photos from the movie, I find myself pretty reluctant to tune into the movie. I know I shouldn’t judge by the photos only but I absolutely loved the novel and my gut feeling is that the movie wouldn’t improve the experience.

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.