Friday, May 6, 2022

"The joy of solo movie watching"/ "Daredevil the wrong hero for our times?"/ "Blue Jays fan's viral act of kindness leaves young Yankees fan in tears"


Dec. 30, 2016 "The joy of solo movie watching": Today I found this article by Alyssa Rosenberg in the Edmonton Journal:


I was once a fan of the movie date.

Beverly Cleary’s young adult novel Fifteen captured the ritual perfectly. After reading it as a child, I dreamt about what it would be like to go to a movie and then get an ice cream soda afterward. In college, I went to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre for the first time with a date, who delighted in walking me through the extravagant gate out front and watching me marvel at the baroque wallpaper and seemingly endless auditorium. 

I have a soft spot for Argo, Ben Affleck’s middling spy drama, because my husband and I saw it on our first date.

But if I really want to see a movie, there’s nothing better than sneaking off to the theatre by myself, preferably in the middle of the day when the cinema’s likely to be close to empty.

The problem with seeing a movie on a date is the movie becomes subordinate to the date.

Rather than giving your full attention to what’s happening onscreen, maybe you’re wondering if you’re going to hold hands, or you’re feeling the weight of their arm across your shoulder.

You’re sharing popcorn, or your fingers bump when you both reach for a Twizzler at the same time.

And even if you aren’t distracted by these little zaps of physical electricity, the way you process a movie on a date is inevitably shaped by the discussion to come. 

I like this, but will she like it? 

I hate this, but will he? 

How could anyone think that was romantic or smart or suspenseful or satisfying? 

If I talk about the cinematography, is he going to think I’m pretentious? 

If I don’t talk about the cinematography, will she think I’m dumb?

I wish I were at Star Wars. I wish he were someone who wanted to see Star Wars.

No, if you really want to get lost in a movie — and have an esthetic experience that will be yours and yours alone — the only way to see a movie is by yourself.

One of the first experiences that convinced me of this was in 1994, when I went to see Little Women in the small Vermont town where my family was living at the time and cried so hard when Beth (Claire Danes) died that a neighbour called my mother to make sure I was all right.

 This year, I saw Hell or High Water, David Mackenzie and Taylor Sheridan’s magnificent neo-western, by myself on a Friday afternoon. One of the reasons it’s stayed at the top of my private best-of list all year is that, though I wanted to talk to everyone I knew about it as soon as I left the theatre, while I was watching the movie, I didn’t think about the world outside at all.

There’s something singularly decadent about the other pleasures of going to the movies by yourself. Not that anyone ought to feel shamed about enjoying an enormous tub of popcorn or a movie-sized soda on their own, but there’s a particular delight in not having to share your treats, or being observed while you eat them. 

If going to the movies alone is a chance not to pay attention to someone else’s reactions, it’s also a chance not to have someone else reacting to you, whether you’re laughing at a stupid but irresistible joke, or eating an entire box of Junior Mints during the movie’s first act.

So much of pop cultural consumption has become inescapably public, whether you’re staying up on Sunday nights to watch Game of Thrones so you can talk about it at work the next day or watching all the Oscar-nominated movies so you can participate in horse-race debates about the contenders or dismiss the whole thing as a racist, sexist sham.

To a certain extent, I think that’s great. After all, I make my living from the fact that people love to have vigorous public debates about pop culture. 

But part of what makes our conversations about art great, and what makes them so different from our debates about politics, is that our reactions to culture are highly personal and unpredictable.

The only way to have those truly private responses is to create space for ourselves to be alone with art.

Going to the movies by yourself is an indulgence. But it’s also the best way to really see a film, and maybe even to catch a little glimpse of your inner self in your reaction to it.


Oct. 10, 2016 "Daredevil the wrong hero for our times?": I cut out this article by Alyssa Rosenberg in the Edmonton Journal on Apr. 18, 2015:

Marvel has made a bundle on superhero movies in recent years, and this summer’s box office looks to be as big as ever. But in expanding its storytelling to television, there have been signs of strain: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had a rocky first season, and it took the spinoff, Agent Carter, to do something genuinely fresh, though the ratings were lethargic.

Now Daredevil, the first of four television shows Netflix is producing in conjunction with Marvel, has arrived, and I regret to report that it’s a ponderous, queasy bummer, a vigilante show that’s arrived at precisely the wrong moment.

Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) is one of many, many television lawyers and sawbones who, despite advances in modern forensics and medicine, continue to believe that their most valuable tool is their gut instincts. 

But part of the fun of a show like House M.D. was watching the characters figure out how to translate a hunch into a specific diagnosis. The characters tried tests and treatments, got new information, ruled some options out and introduced new ones.

But “guilty” or “innocent” are less complicated questions than a medical diagnosis. And so when Matt has a hunch that Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), a young woman found holding a knife, her hands bloody, over the body of her dead coworker, is innocent, she just turns out to be so. And more than that, once Matt and his fellow attorney Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) come to her aid after she is attacked in prison, Karen tells them everything.

“Job’s easy when your client’s innocent,” Matt tells Karen when she is exonerated. “All you did is tell the truth.”

Too easy to be interesting. If all Matt has to do is listen, we’re in for a lot more of the monologues that tend to weigh down the pilot in between vigorous punchings and flashbacks.

 Matt gets plenty of workouts in the many scenes of him punching people with great efficiency and a certain amount of style, but Daredevil would be a more interesting lawyer show if we got to see him exercise the muscles behind his ears.

And even if Daredevil featured more actual legal legwork, the series’ sense of certainty about guilt or innocence feels awfully out of step with the moment in which the show arrives on Netflix. 

We’re supposed to be fine with watching Matt brutally lay out all sorts of human traffickers and corrupt cops because he knows for sure that they’re bad men, and so we don’t have to worry that he is delivering his violent version of justice to someone who doesn’t deserve it, and because he takes so much punishment himself.

“This is what you do, you make life difficult for bad men?” Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson), a nurse who patches Matt up after she finds him in a Dumpster, asks.

“No offence, but you don’t seem to be very good at it.”

But if the killings of black men, teenagers and boys that have gripped the United States in recent years have taught us anything, it should be that such fantasies of certainty are dangerous delusions. 

And even if someone is guilty, delivering penalties outside of a courtroom has an ugly way of escalating the punishment for crimes. 

Walter Scott is dead because he had a broken tail light on his car. 

The crimes in Daredevil, including trafficking and attempted murder, are more consequential, but the show is still awfully blithe about how violently Matt deals with them.

“I’m supposed to take you on faith that I’m on the right side of this?” Claire asks Matt in the second episode, but Matt shrugs off her worries, and she quickly confesses that stories about a masked vigilante inspired her to rescue him. Before the episode is out, Claire is giving Matt advice about where to stab a criminal he is torturing.

Maybe this makes me squishy. But a debate like that, which isn’t really a debate, or flashbacks to little Matt quoting Thurgood Marshall, or the sight of Matt going to confession to get pre-emptory dispensation for his sins in the pilot don’t do much to convince me that Daredevil has thought very much about the anti-heroic nature of a moral philosophy where the most noble thing a parent or a lawyer can do is to hit someone very, very hard (Matt’s dad is a boxer who used to throw fights).

The colour palette on Daredevil is muddy — it’s always a rainy autumn evening in Hell’s Kitchen, apparently — but its view of the world is a crisp, and dully disturbing, black-and-white.




Oct. 31, 2020: Today I'm rereading this article because I have seen the pilot last month.  This is kind of a negative article.  This is like criticizing the show.

The pilot was average.  I haven't decided if I will continue watching more of this. 




Nov. 27, 2018 The 15 min. movie rule: I mentioned this before.  I was watching the TV show Street  Cents and how movie theatres will refund you if you watch the first 15 min of a movie, and walk out. 

I was talking to my friend Cham and she said she saw the first 15 min of the movie To All the Boys I Loved on Netflix and then she stopped.

I watch a lot of the first 15 min. of the movie on my DVR recordings.  If I'm in the mood, I will watch the rest of it. 

 May 11, 2020 American Psycho: This was probably in 2010.  My sister borrowed this movie from the library and I watched this with her.  In the first 15 min., she stopped the movie.

 S: I'm not going to watch this.
Tracy: Then I will.
S: Then you can borrow this from the library.

 S takes the DVD out and puts it in the case.  I didn't watch the rest of it.

 I didn't argue with her on that.  I didn't really like the first 15 min. of the movie.  I guess I thought I liked Criminal Minds, and it's about an FBI team hunting serial killers and that I would like this movie.

 A couple of nights ago I read about the movie synopsis on Wikipedia, and I didn't like it.

 After I read the synopsis, I went on the internet to ask: "Is American Psycho a dream?"

 The movie seemed too violent for me.

 https://www.cinemablend.com/new/American-Psycho-Ending-What-Really-Happened-70126.html

 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144084/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2

 The Island of Dr. Moreau: I saw like the last half of this movie when I was 17 yrs old.  This was on TV.  I want to watch the whole movie.
"After being rescued and brought to an island, a man discovers that its inhabitants are experimental animals being turned into strange-looking humans, all of it the work of a visionary doctor."

 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116654/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3

Jan. 9, 2021 Unfriended: I had recorded this movie.  

"A group of online chat room friends find themselves haunted by a mysterious, supernatural force using the account of their dead friend."



Unfriended: Dark Web: "A teen comes into possession of a new laptop and soon discovers that the previous owner is not only watching him, but will also do anything to get it back."



I then decided to spoil myself and read the plot of Unfriended on Wikipedia.  After I read this, I didn't like it.  I was in kind of a low mood after reading this.  I then really thought about it, and I don't really like scary movies.  I liked them when I was a teen and early 20s.


Movie genres I dislike:

1. Scary movies: I used to like these when I was a teen and in my early 20s because they were interesting and exciting to watch.  I know it's not real, and I'm totally safe.  However, I don't like them because I don't like to be scared or at least the feeling of dread.  This kind of movie brings me down.

2. Spoof movies: I saw Scary Movie at my friend Tamara's house when I was 15.  I didn't like it and found this more offensive than funny.  I did like Scary Movie 3, and that was funny.  I didn't like Scary Movie 4.

I am avoiding those movies like: Dance Flick, Superhero Movie, and all those others.  
They seem so scattered and unorganized and throws in as many jokes as possible.

3. Animated movies: These aren't bad, but I don't like them.  I saw Ralph Breaks the Internet in 2019 at my friend Cham's place.

These are more aimed at kids and families.

4. Comedy movies: I watched MacGruber because Ryan Phillipe was in it.  There was also action in the movie.  The characters and story are dumb.  When things are dumb, that's what makes it funny.

It's like the character Homer Simpson who says and does dumb things all the time.  I like The Simpsons and I don't watch any cartoons or sitcoms.

Movie genres I like:

Action movies: I only like action movies.  There are a few jump scares.  Action movies are more exciting to watch with the fight scenes, chases, car chases, and shootouts.  

The story has drama, conflict, and tension.

Dec. 10, 2021: I like to talk and write about TV and movies.  When I attend the Screenwriters Meetup and Filmmakers Meetup, we talk about that.

Whenever I meet someone new, I always ask what kind of TV and movies they watch.


There isn't a theme this week.  Here are the other 2 blog posts:

"Real Canadian Superstore staff in Alberta vote 97 per cent in favour of strike action"/ "Starbucks baristas are so burned out from mobile app orders that it's sparked a union drive"




"'Poor is more': Pot shop chain says low-income areas good for sales"/ "Goodbye downtown, hello suburbs: What the new Second Cup owner has in store"






My week:

Apr. 30, 2022 Leo opinion surveys:

This is not a scam. You can get paid to do surveys and enter your chances to win prizes like gift cards.

https://app.legeropinion.com/app/todo

You get these chances to win by answering these daily questions like this one today:

Valerie LeBel from Campbellton , NB, would like to know:


Are you doing spring cleaning this year?


Yes         62.37% (1798)

No         37.63% (1085)


My opinion: Yes, and I started back in Feb. when I wasn't working that much.  Then when I started working more, I may do some cleaning one or two days a week.



"N.S. Jeopardy! champ Mattea Roach had hunger for knowledge even as a toddler, say parents": Today I found this article by Anjuli Patil on CBC news: 


As Nova Scotia Jeopardy! champ Mattea Roach's winning streak continues, her parents in Halifax are beaming with pride.

So far, 23-year-old Roach has won 19 games and is already the most successful Canadian to compete on the show. As of Friday, her winnings topped $460,184 US.

"To not be in the negative — that was a mini goal," Roach's mother, Patti MacKinnon, joked during an interview at home Friday before the latest Jeopardy! episode aired.

Roach's father, Phil Roach, added that his daughter's performance on the popular quiz show has been "an amazing run beyond our wildest dreams."

Mattea Roach is the oldest of four children. Her parents said when she was about 18 months old, Roach was able to recognize letters and understand basic math like adding and subtracting.

Roach's parents enrolled her in private school a year before she would have been able to start at a public school. She was involved with dance, soccer, band, choir and musicals. She travelled and took part in her school's debate team where she thrived. 

She also skipped two grades, her parents said.

"What you see on TV is the real Mattea. She's charming, humble and a real down to earth, warm person. She's not like, you know, some brainiac or a genius that's just a fountain of knowledge," said her father, who works in HR.

Roach has talked about paying off student loans with her winnings. MacKinnon said her daughter is frugal, so she wasn't too surprised by that plan. She expects Roach will invest the money, some of it possibly in real estate, go back to school and travel.


N.S. Jeopardy! champ Mattea Roach had hunger for knowledge even as a toddler, say parents | CBC News




Apr. 25, 2022 "As reports of drinking hand sanitizer grow, so do fears for homeless people in Labrador": Today I found this article by Ariana Kelland on CBC news:


The manager of a hotel in Happy Valley-Goose Bay that serves as a for-profit shelter for homeless people is sounding the alarm after seeing residents taken to hospital because they drank hand sanitizer.

Bill Dormody says he has called paramedics over a dozen times in the last several weeks after finding residents incoherent, unresponsive, coughing blood and, at times, with blood coming from their ears and eyes. 

"I'm afraid someone is going to die," Dormody told CBC News.

Hand sanitizer with high-alcohol content has become more easily accessible during the COVID-19 pandemic, and is far cheaper than liquor.

Dormody said he is constantly finding water bottles mixed with sanitizer. Even drinks like pop and Purity syrup have been used to mix with the disinfectant. 

"It's quite horrific, actually. I find that they go from a completely normal state to a state of unresponsiveness, very, very limited motor skills, mimicking being under the influence of regular alcohol, but different," Dormody said. 

"They go from completely coherent to incoherent immediately."

As reports of drinking hand sanitizer grow, so do fears for homeless people in Labrador | CBC News


May 2, 2022 "Woman says she was scammed almost $7K by fake taxi operation in Richmond, B.C.": Today I found this article on Yahoo news:



Mindy Zimmering was heading to a Richmond, B.C., dollar store Tuesday night when she decided to be a Good Samaritan and help out a young man who approached her in the parking lot and said he didn't have enough for a taxi fare.

She says her good deed ended with almost $7,000 in fraudulent charges on her debit card, making her one of a handful of victims of an elaborate scam happening in the city.

Richmond RCMP released a public warning on April 22 in hopes of protecting others from Zimmering's fate.

On Monday, police issued a second warning to highlight the scam's seriousness.

According to police, there have been at least eight reports since April 22 of a man approaching people in busy parking lots asking for help with a cab fare.

After the victim agrees to help, a fake taxi arrives and the driver, who is in on the scam, says he can only take debit cards and the tap function doesn't work on his machine. He then takes the card and pretends to make a transaction, has the victim enter their PIN, then gives them back a different card.

Zimmering said she was handed back a debit card that looked exactly like her own and did not think anything was amiss.

She says she learned of the fraudulent charges when her bank contacted her. By then, five illegal transactions totalling about $6,900 had been made, including the withdrawal of $2,500 in cash.

More victims

Zimmering said, in hindsight, there were red flags she missed.

"What cab does not want cash?" said Zimmering, who says she is now just hoping her bank will reimburse her stolen funds.

She wants others to remember to always look for the cab driver's permit inside the vehicle before making a financial transaction and to question the driver should they request a specific method of payment.

Zimmering said the man who approached her was about 25 to 35 years old and the vehicle was a red sedan with a taxi sign on top of it. Police have also told the public to be wary of a white Toyota Camry with a similar sign.

RCMP say the scammers could be using several different vehicles, all with a white taxi sign on display.

The police-issued warning describes the man approaching people as Middle Eastern and in his early 20s. The fake driver is alleged to be a Fijian or South Asian man in his early 20s.

"Our frontline and economic crime unit investigators are working diligently to identify and locate the suspects. Meantime, we believe there is a need to warn the public of this fraudulent activity," said Richmond RCMP Cpl. Ian Henderson.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Richmond RCMP at 604-278-1212, quoting file number 2202-10686. To remain anonymous, call Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or visit solvecrime.ca.

Woman says she was scammed almost $7K by fake taxi operation in Richmond, B.C. (yahoo.com)


May 3, 2022 "Blue Jays fan's viral act of kindness leaves young Yankees fan in tears": Today I found this article by Olivier Neven on Yahoo news.  Aww...

During Tuesday’s game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Yankees at the Rogers Centre, a Jays fan went viral online after gifting a young Yankees supporter the home run ball after Aaron Judge’s sixth-inning bomb.

Blue Jays fan's act of kindness leaves young Yankees fan in tears (yahoo.com)


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