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Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai - 1999, Jim Jarmusch
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 41
This was better than I expected, and probably good that I waited some 20 years to watch it as there was the added layer of nostalgia.
The plot, an African-American hit man for the mafia becomes their target - think "Ogami Ittō" from “Lone Wolf and Cub”.
It mashes up perfectly Japanese/Samurai, African American, Hip-Hop and Italian Mob Culture. The casting of the Italian Mobsters, perfect. The gaudy Italian houses, perfect. The background violence in the cartoons, the Samurai Sword flourish he does with his gun, both perfect. And - while not the action film you might have hoped for, it's nuanced and slow development of the characters build a certain atmosphere that most current films neglect.
Not quite a masterpiece, but a very good try by director Jim Jarmusch.
Libation Cup Sold
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: For Sale
- Hits: 26
Now it's been up on Facebook Marketplace so long that I thought I'd shop-drop it downtown somewhere with an Ace of Cups Tarot card stuffed inside, let someone have that thrill of discovery. Things otherwise unsaleable I've noted often "disappear" into the free economy when presented as gifts from the universe, or the context surrounding them changes.
Anyways, someone reached out, wanted to buy it, so arranged to meet them for coffee. Since I don't know them I just mark the table with the libation cup.
And he shows up, looks it over, "What can you tell me about it?", and really, not much other than the USA stamp on the side and maybe it's pewter (he guesses aluminum) and probably it was new-age paraphernalia used by witches and wizards.
He sits down, pays me, notices my watch...
(Handsome old Bulova)
...and it turns out he has a collection as well, sounds big, he'll send me pictures on Facebook. And so we talk for about 20 minutes about watches, he soon figures I'm a little bit more of a collector/more informed than he is, but we're bonded over a common interest.
And I think to myself, isn't it curious that we'd share the same interests - mine being reasonably obtuse - but you could almost recognize the cup, the candlesticks, the whatever, and somehow know the person by their possessions...
But we all do, just as we know them by their dress or their manners or accent or in a thousand other ways.
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You - 2025
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 25
Classified as a 'Comedy/Drama' this is a tour-de-force performance by Rosa Byrne ('Linda') of a Therapist who's slowly losing her grip.
The comedy, in the increasing knowledge that she's in no position to be giving advice, the varying degrees of problems her patients come to her with, the symmetrical aspects of her own family and others, the slow unravelling of her life as small incidents become gradually larger, and the surprise appearances by Christian Slater and Conan O'Brian add to it all.
I'll give no spoilers or plot points, merely that if there's an Oscar for Best Actress this year it better be her.
Piss Poor Weather and Mental Health
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 58
The weather the past week, piss poor, raining, cold, and I've no motivation. Even cooking is better left undone, go find a restaurant, and groceries expire in the fridge and I'm not made of money, not with the dependants I have...
Last night, upstairs neighbour, her boyfriend strangely absent these last few days, up late moving furniture, noises, banging. She'd been texting to go for a cigarette, but I'd had my own long day at work and just wanted to decompress. Then, sometime as I was trying to fall asleep, a giant crash, voices, the sound of the rail outside being banged (a peculiar reverberation), and then it's quiet.
Still, restless, the day was long and not enough got done, I sleep poorly.
Today, running into her in the lobby, querying her about the noise, at first she denies it, then confesses it was the ambulance/paramedics trying to get her out of the house...
Which explains the voices, and some of the other noises, and she's telling me she's sick, needs an operation, that she came home to an apartment covered in blood, she's doing laundry and needs an operation scheduled in Trail and she can't talk about it...
***
I have my suspicions, but I know nothing and don't want to ask, I've staggered about drunk more than a few times, kicked up a racket, broken things, but she is I suspect a long ways ahead of me...
***
I checked the obituaries, once in a blue moon, another old customer from the old restaurant, married to J**, grown cranky and cantankerous in her old age. And the Pastor that founded this housing, the thrift shop, the Christian ministry above it, his wife also died. Coincidentally both widowers have the same name. Death out here, it's a season. J**, former customer from the restaurant, comes into the Sushi place for lunch with his son. And I give him my condolences, and he's sad, but he seems as well to be - well, not so sad, the relief the dying give the living - when finally dead - is no small thing. A coincidence, I've never seen him in the restaurant before - but - there is a pattern...synchronicity, a symmetry hidden in the ordered workings of life...
***
Today, cold, miserable, rain, wind, wet, I make it out for a coffee, come home, make a big pot of clam chowder, eat it all. Then take some pictures, out again to list the former closet contents (old computer, projector, monitor, suitcases) on Facebook marketplace, sell it or give it away but be done with it finally.
The computer, there's work there, need to move all the files off of it and wipe, then to Library to list, then again home to wash dishes, read, listen to podcasts (nothing good), read all the news that was never fit to print, ever, and now - after a final walk to make my minimal exercise - to watch a movie, read a few dour books on German Philosophy (Shopenhauer) and then perhaps an early bed...
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