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Happy birthday!
Sep. 4th, 2015 11:34 amHappy birthday to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kaustin -- hope it's a good one!
kaustin -- hope it's a good one!Sep. 4th, 2015
A household physics question
Sep. 4th, 2015 11:38 amMost mornings, I have coffee to drink. Sometimes regular coffee made with my Keurig coffee maker, and sometimes a latte, made with an espresso maker and foamer. In both cases, the vagaries of the devices means that the coffee comes to within about an eighth of an inch of the top of the coffee mug. In the case of the latte, there's another quarter-inch or so of foam above the liquid.
Is it just my imagination, or is my coffee less likely to spill when there's foam on top than when it's just plain coffee? Could the foam actually be providing some stabilization?
It seems that way to me, but I have no idea if there's any justification for that feeling.
Is it just my imagination, or is my coffee less likely to spill when there's foam on top than when it's just plain coffee? Could the foam actually be providing some stabilization?
It seems that way to me, but I have no idea if there's any justification for that feeling.
Four-star movie: Ordet
Sep. 4th, 2015 03:10 pmOrdet
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
1955
This is very much the sort of movie I never would have watched if it weren't for the four-star movie project -- black and white, foreign language, primarily about religion, and mostly grimdark.
The cinematography is stark and beautiful and I could appreciate it on that level. But the religious aspects are the sort that bother me the most. The essential message is that if you believe enough, miracles can happen, even though (as everyone in the movie except the madman who believes himself to be Jesus Christ) the age of miracles is past. The converse, of course, is that if you don't get the miracle, it was because you didn't believe enough, so it's all your own fault.
In this movie, the little girl believes enough, and the miracle happens. Grump.
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
1955
This is very much the sort of movie I never would have watched if it weren't for the four-star movie project -- black and white, foreign language, primarily about religion, and mostly grimdark.
The cinematography is stark and beautiful and I could appreciate it on that level. But the religious aspects are the sort that bother me the most. The essential message is that if you believe enough, miracles can happen, even though (as everyone in the movie except the madman who believes himself to be Jesus Christ) the age of miracles is past. The converse, of course, is that if you don't get the miracle, it was because you didn't believe enough, so it's all your own fault.
In this movie, the little girl believes enough, and the miracle happens. Grump.
Four-star movie: Ordinary People
Sep. 4th, 2015 03:24 pmOrdinary People
Director: Robert Redford
1980
This was Robert Redford's first directorial gig, and it was a triumph. It won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (and another actor from the movie was also nominated), and a nomination for Best Actress. It was also the movie where Mary Tyler Moore showed that she could be serious as well as funny.
The thing I like best about this movie is the fact that it has Judd Hirsch as a competent psychologist who slowly helps Timothy Hutton turn his life around again. There's no miracle here (though there is one very cathartic scene), just the evolution of coming to realize that he can't be the perfect son, and that it's not his fault that his mother cares more about being normal and putting on a good face than in actually loving and caring for her traumatized son.
Director: Robert Redford
1980
This was Robert Redford's first directorial gig, and it was a triumph. It won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (and another actor from the movie was also nominated), and a nomination for Best Actress. It was also the movie where Mary Tyler Moore showed that she could be serious as well as funny.
The thing I like best about this movie is the fact that it has Judd Hirsch as a competent psychologist who slowly helps Timothy Hutton turn his life around again. There's no miracle here (though there is one very cathartic scene), just the evolution of coming to realize that he can't be the perfect son, and that it's not his fault that his mother cares more about being normal and putting on a good face than in actually loving and caring for her traumatized son.
Four-star movie: Othello
Sep. 4th, 2015 03:35 pmOthello
Director: Stuart Burge
1965
I am unable to watch this movie without thinking of the scene (related by another character) where people watching this version of Othello have to be dragged out of the theater because of their hysterics at viewing Laurence Olivier in blackface. Having seen it last week for the first time, I have a certain sympathy with this reaction. I didn't giggle, but I don't think Olivier quite carries it off. He apparently developed his own accent (which sounds like nothing else I've ever heard) and a manner of walking unlike his usual style as well.
Maggie Smith is luminous in the role of Desdemona, and Frank Finlay (whose work I was unfamiliar with) was believably vile in the role of Iago.
Any further gripes I have with the movie go back to William Shakespeare. The racism and sexism fairies are alive and very well in this production, and there's really not much to be done about it without rewriting the source material.
Director: Stuart Burge
1965
I am unable to watch this movie without thinking of the scene (related by another character) where people watching this version of Othello have to be dragged out of the theater because of their hysterics at viewing Laurence Olivier in blackface. Having seen it last week for the first time, I have a certain sympathy with this reaction. I didn't giggle, but I don't think Olivier quite carries it off. He apparently developed his own accent (which sounds like nothing else I've ever heard) and a manner of walking unlike his usual style as well.
Maggie Smith is luminous in the role of Desdemona, and Frank Finlay (whose work I was unfamiliar with) was believably vile in the role of Iago.
Any further gripes I have with the movie go back to William Shakespeare. The racism and sexism fairies are alive and very well in this production, and there's really not much to be done about it without rewriting the source material.