Stealing.

so do i file my taxes?

You know we have too many music biopics when one musician is portrayed by a bunch of Lego bricks and another by a cgi chimpanzee. Next we'll have Mick Jagger portrayed by a six-year-old girl and Billy Joel played by a stick of butter.

happy birthday! (and welcome to bluesky!)

Now I'm nitpicking, but I really hope we don't go into 2025 honoring a clearly libertarian film that diminishes women, disparages brutalism as an art form, and inspires young people to believe they can achieve greatness without the help and support of others.

Many other logical impossibilities: the client in The Brutalist who hires the architect for the redesign of his private library, fires him because he hates it, and has to eat crow when his library is profiled in Life magazine as a great technical achievement. Um, how did Life magazine know about it?

I went to see The Brutalist in 70mm so I could really appreciate the technical achievement of filming in VistaVision and I can only say - don't bother. The cinematography is nice, technically proficient, but there's nothing jaw-dropping here.

There's very little about architecture in both The Brutalist and Megalopolis. The directors didn't seem to understand or really be interested in architecture other than as a metaphor.

I went into The Brutalist thinking it was a biopic, so I gave the flaws in the story a lot of leeway. Once I realized it was fictional, it all came crumbling down. This great architect invents modernism in Hungary, and introduces it to the US, whereas modernism was huge in the US for a decade.

But this libertarian ethos is like, no, if I could just magically be funded for my great visions (which, hello, wasn't even his idea in the Brutalist) then I would create amazing things and be recognized the world over for my brilliance.

An architect is like a director, so I can see the appeal of the story for a filmmaker. But in the same way that a director can't make a film without a writer, an editor (unless you're Coppola, lol), actors, etc., the job of both is actually orchestrating the works of others.

A lot has been written about how Felicity Jones was miscast in the Brutalist. How would you know? It was an extremely underwritten role. She wasn't built out as a character and you never understand her motivations. She is ancillary to the greatness of a man.

The Brutalist and Megalopolis were the exact same movie. An Ayn Rand libertarian story (a remake of The Fountainhead, if we're honest) about a great man, an architect, a genius who does everything by himself (how?) and who no one appreciates. The only difference between them was the budget.

There is a portion of the American electorate that believes something isn't useful if it won't directly get you a job or profession. My dad was one of those people.

Oh no

Enjoy this birb.

Periodically, the jet engines in this 757 rev up to an alarming degree - less "i need to pass this mofo" and more "getting ready to explode." i'm not a nervous flier but it's disconcerting.

Not today, Jenny.

‘Sesame Street’ Hits the Market: HBO and Max Opt Not to Renew Deal for New Episodes (Exclusive) The Warner Bros. Discovery streaming service Max will continue to license library episodes of the long-running children's show, but is shifting its programming strategy to focus to adult and family fa...

Commercial real estate is getting out of hand.

some people say travel broadens the mind. it mostly makes me happy for my life choices, that i'm not fighting loudly with a stupid person, like the couple next to me.

My Life As a Homeless Man in America An extraordinary firsthand account.

really intense writing.

everywhere in the shops in milan are signs for black friday, but no one seems to know when black friday is, and why would they? so there's a lot of "happy black friday month!" and "black week!" i saw stickers for black friday on a cigarette machine today.

I decided to be lazy and take a taxi from Piacenza to Milan, a trip of over an hour. Turns out it's my taxi driver's first day on the job, and I'm his first ever rider. An adventure for both of us!

Can you take a photo of us? YouTube video by Tiny Idea

sweet/surreal

The Maps That Tell Your Life Story From CityLab’s mailbag: Here are the personal stories about how maps shaped your lives.

beautiful stories of the maps that shape our lives.

first time i've ever stayed in a hotel room without a land line phone.

The weird thing about Trump's nominations is it makes it clear who's running this administration. He only trusts talking heads on Fox News, more than experts with decades of experience. Murdoch better hire some policy experts, because he's running this country now.

An advert for a company called Magibook. The headline reads "Turn HARD books into EASY books with Magibook! Maximize your reading potential and avoid difficult language today." Underneath is two covers of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Above the first cover is the original version of the opening sentence (captioned "Turn Hard Books"), which reads "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since." Above the second cover (captioned "into Easy Books") is a simplified version, which reads "When I was young, my dad told me something that I still think about."

THE BELL JAR

HARD ❌

It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York

EASY ✅

That summer was sizzling, and so were the Rosenbergs

Walking down the street, an older Chinese guy walks up to me and says, "I still want to buy your Corolla." I suddenly remember that over a year ago, he walked up to me on the street and told me he wanted to buy my Corolla. Both times, not in or near my car. Never talked to the guy otherwise.

"Who did you vote for Mayor?" oh, you know, the person closest to my ideology, with plenty of experience. you? everyone at the table voted for the millionaire with no experience. why? in unison, "Because he has no experience!" ......I guess advertising works?