Forbears

It seems like retrograde routine

gregarious glib grenadine 

a pattern strict with dull potential 

indefatigably sequential

yet within the trusted sound

enlivening picturesque grounds

awaits expansive inconclusive

reverentially conducive

lain gymnastic aviation

sing song chirpy incantations 

other stalwarts sly and furtive

beavers raccoons turtles perchéd

set courageously to wander

putter prod prognostic ponder

never have I seen so many

what a year outstanding steady

strollin'.

The Gold Rush

The lour of abundant riches fluidly flourishing with feverish frenzy, drives The Lone Prospector (Charlie Chaplin) north to seek his fortune in the outspoken wilderness. 

But luck deceptively eludes him as his adventure encounters the void, and without food as winter sets in he finds himself starving in a crowded cabin.

Two others have joined him indeed one having recently found good fortune, the other hunted by the adamant law and in no mood for friendly conversation.

The awkward potentially dangerous situation is not without meaningful comic effect, as inherent absurdity echoes incarnate throughout the vast remarkable land.

Eventually, after an offbeat rendez-vous with understated ursine munificence, it's off to a nearby town to patiently wait for the upcoming spring.

Wherein which bourgeois potential's cloaked within seemingly radical excess, the incumbent seclusion forging molten magnanimity that takes some time for the prospector to get used to. 

But with resonant hesitant accord he peacefully acculturates piecemeal by and by, at least attempting to earnestly grow accustomed to something he'll never quite instinctually understand.

Such a shame to have to adapt to not simply intuit the habitual happenstance, trial and error deemed somewhat unproductive when generally applied to prestigious social life.

There seems to be an art to conviviality which many comprehend with innate fascination, whereas others observe somewhat bewildered by the odd animate freeform merrymaking.

Competing rationalities discernibly conceal fortuitous facts and fashionable variabilities, which spontaneously mutate according to im/perceptible personalized aggrieved or ecstatic revelations. 

Why not a quiet evening at home swashbucklingly scrutinized with celebratory sentiment, the discursive means questing themselves for alert dis/proportionate vigorous censure?

Established semantic inhibition reflexively refreshes bold exotic tongues, as inchoate interactive fluencies effusively flutter to perplexingly fathom!

While the rowdy festive heralding doth still pose sociocultural temptation, newfound habits and tantalizing tranquility often offer clement consignments. 

Brilliant film, every second romanticized with sporting dis/passionate uncanny revels (Happy New Year!).

Amazing country far off, so I hear.

With so much land still yet to be claimed.  

Loin du Vietnam (Far from Vietnam)

You wonder why or how it ever seemed so significant, how a tiny jungle country in southeast Asia could have warranted a prolonged bloodthirsty conflict.

With thousands dying in a hostile land uniformly united to defend their realm, ideology butchered with extreme malignancy to attempt to settle a political rampage.

Loin du Vietnam (Far from Vietnam) packs a ferocious punch as it analyzes the Vietnam War, presenting multiple viewpoints from opposing sides furiously hellbent on polemical destruction.

But I don't see a synthesis here it seems plain and clear the resistance was right, or that those challenging the bellicose authorities were in virtuous possession of infallible conviction.

How could you ever convince someone of ideological agency by aggressively bombing them day and night?, the documentary capturing the ruthless madness that viciously encouraged rampant death and devastation.

Violently disseminating your message pestiferously begets similar responses, an eye for an eye the message still the same, many people will fight if you use violence to persuade them.

And what do you win if you radically subdue them, besides ubiquitous engrained somnambulism, the remarkable thrill of having thoroughly convinced someone worth billions more and much less expensive.

If you proceed with friendship or genuine curiosity to lay the foundations for lucrative trade, diplomatically distilling mutually beneficial matrices things generally improve while many prosper.

Peaceful relations hopefully nurture networks which convivially matriculate as goals are met, infrastructure enabled with longitudinal lattice to efficiently enliven fortuitous fable.

People do often seem to be at odds or indeed rather grumpy from time to time, but cultures which embrace feminine counsel seem to succeed with more byzantine balance.

Like I've said before, a solid mix of the genders has led to fun working experiences, the desire to productively intermingle while taking account of multifaceted interrelations, resonantly producing cohesive outputs, negotiating novelty and tradition.

I was sad to hear Jean-Luc Godard passed this year, he's most certainly one of my favourite directors (he's one of 7 directors who made Loin du Vietnam).

I enjoyed so many of his unique films in my youth.

I'm curious to know where he ended up?! 🤔

*Note: some monogender environments can be fun too, but they're definitely more well-rounded or versatile if there's a mix. 

Infalibilidad inquebrantable. ¡Ucrania por excelencia!

Blood & Wine

The lives of a somewhat traditional family descend into bitter vengeful chaos, after the thieving of a diamond necklace encourages too many unanswered questions.

Had the covetous husband (Jack Nicholson) not sought an uncharacteristic financial panacea, he could have continued selling his wine and perhaps turned his struggling business around.

He even provides his step-son (Stephen Dorff) with age old advice attempting to mean well, the youngster rather dismissive of his by-the-book step-dad and generally uninterested in commercial counsel. 

It's in fact an offbeat salute to disorganized youth and improvised dreams, as the adults prove rather immature and the young ones radiate unworldly competence.

I didn't find Blood & Wine comic while startlingly considering its inherent disillusionment, but when you compare who Mr. Gates tries to be in the film, with the contradictory results he rashly spawns, there's certainly dark humour afoot, that betrays lucid masterful mischief.

I was sad when Bob Rafelson passed away this year because Five Easy Pieces was one of the first independent films I saw, also the first to leave a significant impact no doubt it's a timeless gem that shouldn't be forgotten.

I likely would have still discovered independent cinema but it still definitively functioned like a productive catalyst, and I began to watch more and more underground exemplars of less general attempts to create mass amusement.

I imagine it's still a great place to start although there's no standard recipe for this sort of thing, with lifelong bizarro eclectic trial and error heuristically harkening holistic happenstance.

It was easier with video rental stores if the owners shared a wide ranging perspective, and with shows like Siskel & Ebert to playfully present honest heartfelt takes (still available on YouTube the last time I checked).

It's not that much more difficult now but finding quality films may require a little more effort, but if the desire's there, there shouldn't be barriers preventing you from finding tens of thousand of extant picks on iTunes and YouTube.

I suppose it's actually much easier to just rent films from iTunes or YouTube, if you do enough research. You can watch them from the comfort of your home and there's always a copy available. I found it much more fun to visit and compare individual rental stores, however. Some of them had incredible collections.

Blood & Wine showcases unleashed aggression from unwilling participants habitually docile, the results mind-boggling and incredibly awkward as unaccustomed emotion lacks orthodox sublimation.

Michael Caine (Victor) before finding his avuncular role as Bruce Wayne's stern but caring Alfred.

Jennifer Lopez (Gabriela), Stephen Dorff and Judy Davis also impress. 

Like film noir without a private detective.

Infaillibilité inflexible! L'Ukraine par excellence!

Things were pretty expensive for the last month, like I'm sure they were for most people, so I thought I would wait to make some of my donations until January when I had more money coming in.

I was going through some old boxes however and I came across some old records, tapes, & CDs, and I thought, wouldn't it be great if I had something to play them on, since my old stereo no longer works.

I was surprised to find you can still buy turntable/CD/cassette player combos, and that they aren't that expensive, but just as I was about to order one, I made a crucial realization: I was being tested by Christmas.

In fact, the cost of the new stereo was around the same amount I had planned to make in donations, and the people who will benefit from the donations would benefit much more from them than I would from a new cassette player.

Thus, I'm making a donation to the Ukraine war effort and some other favourite charities tomorrow. 

I hope I passed that Christmas test.

You never really know when Christmas is about to challenge you! 😉🎄🎅🤶

Grizzly Farm

Magnanimously chant and sing

enliven joyous reckonings

unfiltered passionate expansion

choral synchronous refraction

secrets furtively creating

undisclosed merrymade 'mazing

tantalizing theorizing

exponential aggrandizing

when the melody's in doubt

remember incarnated clout

and keep the memory held near

as you should out with Christmas cheer!

may Happy Holidays enraptor

friendly unimposing statures

peace to all through everything

with wondrous campy carol-sings

enticing.

Looks like Santa'll need Rudolph's help this year. 

Nice! 🎄🎅🤶🦌

Many thanks to the hearty peeps currently or recently or soon-to-be engaged in bus or taxi driving and snow removal etc! I've played an active role and know it's tough. But also super rewarding at times. 

Free coffee and donuts throughout the land?! 

That would be amazing!

🎄🎅🤶✮

8-Bit Christmas

A different time known by many only through festive fable and resolute reanimation, during which new technological developments proliferated, along with the age old tried and true.

In fact inherent resonant syntheses at times harmoniously hastened, newfound revelatory reckoning hitherto unheard of in sundry millennia. 

With such abundant novelty elucidating ingenious spirits habitually distilled, random fluid intermittent auspices risibly attuned to salient synergy.

Within this unsurpassed decade, 8-Bit Christmas shares its tale, with laudable attempts to appear authentic, throughout the incumbent childhood reminiscence.

For one youngster within the neighbourhood has received every newly released toy, and his surrounding covetous playmates seek to be chosen to actively play.

They longingly gather en masse while young Mr. Keane (Chandler Dean) treats them contemptuously, his haughty dismissive cheeky flaunting generally tolerated with tranquil reticence. 

But 'lil Jake Doyle (Winslow Fegley/Neil Patrick Harris) has had enough and after a haunting disturbing incident, sets out to buy a Nintendo of his own to freely accommodate nimble gaming.

The initial plan involves the Scouts and the accumulation of commodities sold, wreathes indeed to communal stalwarts ceremoniously accustomed to symbolic tradition.

If his sales reverberatingly reach sought after insurmountable superlatives, it is thought he will receive a new Nintendo gaming system.

But something's not quite right and his friends may have been misinformed.

Thus inspiring strategic improvisation. 

With the aid of friends and family.

Not merely a history lesson for contemporary enthusiasts intent on study, but also a blueprint for high-stakes shenanigans as once conceived sans online technologies. 

For there was indeed a time when intricate detail was interactively worked into thoughtful recreation, and playful meetings were held in person to freely negotiate what lay outside.

It was called conversation wherein which curious peeps expressed different points of view, and if the answer remained uncertain what were known as books were readily consulted.

I really enjoyed this film and will likely check it out again next Holiday Season (along with works by Raymond Briggs [I have a huge list of shows and films to watch every year {and it just keeps growing!}]). 

It has a classic Christmas ending (love you dad).

Applicable throughout the ages.

Raymond Briggs was clearly a genius.

Merry Christmas to lovers of incredible Christmas Specials!

And fans of Bears throughout the world!

🐻🎄🎅🤶

Is it time to start selling dip with wraps, i.e., you buy a delicious tofu wrap, and it comes with guac dip, so you can dip your wrap in the guac! Where are they already doing that? 😋🎅🎁🥑

Is it too early to call . . . a Lions/Jaguars Super Bowl!!!! 🏈

The coolest potentially forgotten Christmas Special I've seen for the first time this year has to be The Snowman, based on the book by Raymond Briggs.

It's so cool!

*Snowpeople can fly!

 Doesn't Gronk have to play with Brady? The alternative's unthinkable! 🏈

Still haven't been able to find a Godard Christmas Special. 🎄🎅🤶

Sometimes when I'm swimming in a pool, I think, wouldn't it be cool to have a hot tub the size of a pool. And just float around in it. 🍻

Is autonomy inherently self-defeating? 🤔😜

Unyielding infallibility. Quintessential Ukraine!

Modern Times

Charlie Chaplin films were often on television when I was very young, and they were just as entertaining then as they are this thoughtful day.

What an incredible entertainer who pioneered chill agile filmmaking, with innate atemporal intergenerational verve, he just set about tellin' cool stories, with remarkably awkward elasticity. 

Even though it's brilliantly evident that every nanosecond's been cleverly crafted, there's still an inherent nonchalance to his films, to Modern Times and ________ anyways, that makes them seem like real-time documentaries.

With saintly esteemed modesty he maladroitly maneuvers, without animosity or presumption with distilled existential innocence.

A character who tries but never fits in but still never loses that integral curiosity, always hoping to smoothly interact while humorously making a constructive haphazard mess of it.

It's like that when you don't fully understand how people generally coordinate their activities, and one mysterious circumstance after another inquisitively materializes offbeat caricatures. 

The golden rule doesn't seem to apply much anymore if it ever did who knows to be certain, rather irate misinterpretation and erroneous fabrication seem to often hinder communal progression.

Wasn't there a time not so long ago when meaningfully constructed well-reasoned arguments, were more politically and socioculturally appealing than fear-mongering and divisive posturing?

Aren't logic and reason internationally applied more communally applicable to environmental dilemmas, since pollution knows no specific geographic border and pestiferously pesters partout willy-nilly? 

It's like the world's trying to resoundingly change and has thoroughly announced widespread conducive reckoning, but rather than take the impetus of such healthy initiatives, the electoral map is redrawn and voting rights rescinded. 

If political parties can't effectively convince citizens to follow a specific course of action, and stubbornly refuse to adjust that course of action, and then try to prevent people from accessing their democratic voting rights to achieve victory, shouldn't they universally rethink how they act and and what they stand for, to actually become appealing, not just frightening, with less polemical leadership?

It's been utterly mind-blowing to see how stubborn politics have become in modern times. 

Stereotypically dishevelling. 

Ubiquitously volatile. 

The Raggedy Rawney

The Raggedy Rawney ruggedly critiques übermasculinst initiatives, inasmuch as it directly presents agile characters with no interest in fighting.

It seems straightforward enough that you don't force people to fight in wars, wouldn't they be useless in the lines anyway and prone to brutal discipline?

There are plenty of people ready to fight or at least ready to present themselves as battle worthy, does it not make sense to leave pacifists behind and let them constructively work on negotiating an armistice?

It actually seemed for awhile that the equation of manhood with military service was a formula fading into the past, and that the public sphere was productively expanding to include myriad alternative masculinist conceptions.

Isn't the cultivation of a world wherein which these conceptions flourish alongside traditional depictions of manhood, not worth tenaciously fighting for with the spirit of the emboldened Ukraine?

Does it have to be a rough juxtaposition of brain and brawn till the end of time, wherein which the athletically gifted furiously contend with well-read snobs?

Does the well-read snob have to continuously push books and learning upon active peeps who have no interest, do the active peeps have to advocate combat with ruthless resolve? 

Both groups secretly long to be genuinely accepted by the other, should they doubt the innocent choices that led them upon their steady trajectory.

Boredom often materializes even within an active routine, a theoretical solution imaginatively presenting itself as a romantic elevation of alternative lifestyles.

I was fortunately saved because I never really cared much about what others were doing (I could also do both), I really tried to seem interested for awhile, but people were often annoyed by my feigned enthusiasm (is there any other way?).

I tried to point out that most of the world inevitably has to feign enthusiasm, through much of their adult lives in order to ironically avoid malaise.

But you can't say that it's rather awkward they just keep presenting the same dull questions, and you keep delivering the same peppy response while wondering if you've gotten it right this time.

It can be rather amusing although you have to keep it to yourself, an honest description delivered with sincere integrity generally anathema and leading nowhere.

I didn't mean for this to be so tiresome perhaps it's not I really can't say.

Cheers to a world without military combat however!

Along with whoever engages in defensive warfare. 

Velyka doblesť! Ukrayins'ka tsilisnisť!

I gotta admit, I freakin' love it when star athletes show up for big games, and wow bob wow, Messi and Mbappé did not disappoint today. 2 goals for Messi, a hat trick for Mbappé, that was a final for the ages, too bad they both couldn't win. Nice to see Messi pick up a World Cup title though.

Amazing. ⚽

Bet Your Boots

The patient vigilant supine

semantic consonance refined

heartfelt refraction resonating

serendipitous equating

keep the wondrous watchful eye

attuned to intricate aligned

well-suited grains grassrooted gumption

consummate reputed scrunchin'

price be damned concernéd clear

abounding tame concordant dear

notes taken tight throughout the year

to manifest goodwill and cheer

while searching closely sound and fair

circuitous unbound and rare

me friends and family 'a greetin'

gifts presented joyous heedin'

decibles.