Jason Pargin is becoming our go-to guy for a voice of reason on Facebook. Hard truths and reality checks. Mostly apolitical, but an astute observer of culture. I recently came across one of his videos that inserts some reality into content creation. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1D2ptjh638 You can check out his videos here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/jasondavidwongpargin For some reason, this […]
Category: Movies
Instead of asking, “Is AI becoming human-like?”, perhaps we should be asking “Are humans AI-like?” Let’s work with this set of assumptions: It is a deterministic universe, rigidly governed by the laws of physics. Humans are incredibly complex state machines, obeying biochemical responses. We have no free will, no consciousness, but due to the incredible […]
Today we look at the stories portrayed in the 1964 Japanese ghost story anthology film, Kwaidan. The Black Hair “The Black Hair” (黒髪, Kurokami) is adapted from “The Reconciliation” and “The Corpse Rider”, which appeared in Hearn’s collection Shadowings (1900). An impoverished swordsman in Kyoto divorces his wife, a weaver, and leaves her for a […]
Lafcadio Hearn’s short story, Mujina, from Kwaidan – Stories and Studies of Strange Things, depicts a creepy Japanese supernatural creature called a noppera-bō, or mujina. No-Face / Spirited Away No-Face is a fascinating character in the Japanese animated film Spirited Away. Insightful article on Comic Book Resources: The CBR is a pretty cool web site. […]
Lafcadio Hearn, author of the book Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, moved to Japan in 1890. He initially arrived to work as an English teacher in Matsue, a city in the Shimane Prefecture. Hearn became deeply fascinated with Japanese culture, folklore, and traditions, eventually settling in Japan permanently. He married a Japanese woman […]
Through an interesting stream of consciousness, we came across one of the most interesting people on our World Tour: Lafcadio Hearn. Stream of Unconsciousness So, due to a combination of quantum effects, uncertainty principles, and tidal forces, the HBO algorithm suggested Kwaidan. The poster was creepy enough to draw me in. Kwaidan (Japanese: 怪談, Hepburn: […]
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A Sea Shanty Rabbit Hole
Say, may I recommend two “Sea Shanty” movies? We really liked both of them. Blow the Man Down Blow the Man Down is a 2019 American black comedy thriller film, written and directed by Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy. It stars Morgan Saylor, Sophie Lowe, Annette O’Toole, Marceline Hugot, Gayle Rankin, Will Brittain, Skipp […]
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The Humble “Before”
Yesterday’s BLOTT (Everybody Loves Me, What About You?) leads naturally to a reflection on humility. Is it possible to combine humor and humility? (Our first humbleness failure may be assuming WLBOTT is funny.) But for the sake of argument, let’s make this assumption and move forward. There’s an interesting article titled “The Limits of Humility: […]
Moral Musings and Iguanas The Moral Dilemma It’s so easy to look down from our throne of bounty, our luxury WLBOTT world, and ask these questions. The WLBOTT world, where we have unlimited ramen noodles and health care in the form of Vick’s Vap-o-rub and generic Tylenol. It’s hard to imagine anyone in America as […]
References Jennifer Clement (author of Prayers for the Stolen) Guerrero, Mexico Chilpancingo The movie and part I of the book are set on the outskirts of Chilpancingo, a city about an hour northeast of Acapulco. Chilpancingo de los Bravo (commonly shortened to Chilpancingo) is the capital and second-largest city of the Mexican state of Guerrero. […]