the relentless bash of Kristi Noem was fucking hilarious.

It was one of those jokes that was funny at first, then began to get a little tired, then started becoming funny again because of how overdone it was.

I finished ‘Something Undone’. It had quite an unsatisfying ending, and when I looked it up online it appears to have been a victim of premature cancellation. I can’t really say I regret watching it, because visually it was great and there were some actors I hadn’t seen much of, but I do feel a little disappointed knowing the loose ends will never be resolved.

Currently I’m rewatching ‘House of the Dragon’ with my partner, who is experiencing it for the first time. She was quite hesitant to watch it because she knows ‘Game of Thrones’ was full of violence and nudity (things she tends to hate when they are overdone), but I reassured her that House of the Dragon is quite a bit more restrained and tasteful. Then the very first episode is full of unnecessary violence and sex…I wonder if they did that on purpose to bait Game of Thrones fans? Anyway, it has been fun to experience the twists and big moments a second time through her and compare her reactions to mine. I enjoyed watching this show by myself but I think it’s better with someone else beside me to discuss it with.

Is that the one with Kristen Bell in it? I recall that being quite funny.

Switching to FOSS/private alternatives is full of compromises. Considering this one takes about 10 seconds out of my life and is literally how all navigation worked before smartphones and learned helplessness, I think it’s well worth the trade-off.

You’re quite fortunate, I have had fairly mixed experiences in the last couple of years. Too many people using their phones in the middle of the film or eating very loudly. But I keep persisting, it’s worth it for the sessions where the audience is respectful or there’s just no one else there.

if you don’t know the specific address of a place you’re pretty much SOoL

Look the address up and put it into the map app…problem solved.

The internet’s inability to fact check anything before re-sharing it? Yes, I agree.

I tried to use prime recently, they’ve put ads in movies??

Maybe it depends on the region, but I don’t think I’ve had an ad during a film in Australia. They definitely play them beforehand though, as well as in TV shows.

It sort of feels like he’s died a second time to me, the first coming when he retired fully (he was still doing some regular review stuff even after leaving the ABC). He was not really a reviewer for the casual cinemagoer, he was a reviewer for people who loved film like he did. Even if you didn’t agree with his opinions, you could always understand and respect the level of thought he put into his analysis of a film (though he did have some funny quirks, my favourite being his hatred for “shaky cam”). I was fortunate to meet him and Margaret Pomeranz at The Mercury cinema in Adelaide when they did a Q&A after a screening of something. Seeing them in person surrounded by all these other film lovers in a small, independent cinema sort of reaffirmed to me how much I loved the art. I have a couple of his books, ‘Australia at the Movies’ which was published last year is really good and I’d strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to watch more Australian feature films or just read his opinions on basically every single one released in the last 30 years.

tHeSe qUeStIoNs

It was one question, and it’s a relevant one. If you are worried about Google cutting support for Google Maps on AOSP, the solution is not to double down on the Google ecosystem. There’s not going to be some magical perfect replacement for Google Maps out of nowhere, the only way its competitors improve is if people use them.

If you don’t want to, that’s fine, just don’t start crying when Google pulls support out from under you.

But why do you need it all in one app? As you’ve noted, there are alternatives like GMaps WV that deliver all the other stuff. Combine that with any other navigation app and you have everything Google Maps delivers, without relying on its app.

I haven’t really seen evidence of this at my local for ordinary screenings (although kids still go with their parents, which I guess would contribute to one of those two statistics) but younger people definitely seem to love the special screening events for older/cult classic films. They are always a sellout crowd with tons of younger millennials and zoomers going along.

I don’t know if that’s just because its something to do on a Friday/Saturday night, or if they are film lovers themselves, but it is nice to see local independent cinemas finding a revenue stream that works for these younger generations. I feel like the big sugar hit they get from these events probably goes a long way to covering their losses from other sessions, which are usually fairly empty aside from a smattering of older cinemagoers.

Did you watch the Assembly Cut of 3? It’s a more consistent and well-rounded experience, although the film still goes downhill considerably from the moment of

I don’t think your opinions are that unusual. The first 4 Alien films are all unique in their own way, and if you watch the Assembly Cut then even 3 is a fairly consistent and satisfying experience. It’s really from Prometheus onwards that the major issues started, although I will say that at least Prometheus was still trying to bring something different in its themes and setting (which were unfortunately poorly developed and hampered by the terrible writing). Covenant was just a complete mess suffering from a clear identity crisis and Romulus was soulless nostalgia-bait, as most reboots are.

Perhaps I should redefine what I mean by “relevant” then, because it’s obviously the case that Australians have far less control over the situation in Gaza than they do over the rights of people suffering under their own democratically elected government. Whilst pushing our politicians to recognise Palestinian statehood or end the shipment of military equipment to Israel is not a complete waste of time and is certainly a good thing to do, the reality is that it will not even go close to solving that problem or ending the pain for Palestinian people. Australia can only offer moderate influence here, it cannot actively change anything by itself. Domestically, we have all the power and can absolutely make meaningful change so what’s the excuse? We don’t stand up for these other things, that’s the point, so to frame this as a hypocritical position misses the point entirely.

Its a shame that i feel that Australians aren’t willing to accept costs like those for what i still believe are broadly held convictions about how we want to live in the world.

Well I guess that depends a bit on the context, because in this case certainly it seems like most Australians are now quite united in their opinion and its really the politicians who have been dragging their feet. But more broadly I agree, it has been somewhat frustrating to see how willing Australians are to educate themselves on the situation in Gaza and advocate on behalf of Palestinians whilst issues that are actually relevant to the Australian context, like the rights of Indigenous people or asylum seekers, remain areas of widespread ignorance and disinterest. I suppose one of the key differences is that pro-Palestinian advocacy really costs Australians nothing, so for most the opportunity to take a selfish position doesn’t exist. It’s free moral high ground with zero trade-offs.

Good points, it is easy forget that a lot of the big IR issues are associated with the US and can have significant knock-on effects as a result. I do find realpolitik quite sickening when applied to human rights issues, though.

There is rarely piano but when there is then it is electric piano which has a very different sound you may not recognize(?)

Yes, that’s probably true. I guess from the genres I am coming from I mentally associate the word “piano” with a specific sound emulating that of a non-electric/traditional piano with some added reverb and sometimes delay.

Someone did something similar for Naruto, and it made Shippuden a lot more bearable. Although it was still so bad that I eventually gave up and skipped to the end lol

This really was a case where “too long” was a perfect description. They did the “you’d expect the name to be this…but it isn’t!” thing like 3 times before they finally revealed it way down the bottom.