What are you watching?

[Catoptric]

When Shelley Duvall died, the Terminator 2 actor, Edward Furlong, had costarred with her in her last film, 'The Forest Hills,' and he was supposed to attend some nerd convention in the area, but his appearance was canceled, and I always wondered why (as though he might have been attending her funeral, or just felt depressed about her death and canceled.




The Desert Inn hotel that Hughes bought to remain reclusive (and until recent decades, remained opened.)




The Riviera Hotel was also famous (a surprisingly decent documentary.)


Tropicana Hotel recently closed?


Baseball stadium will replace it
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/ne ... -ballpark/

Mirage Hotel


General history of Las Vegas



I actually despise gambling and casino culture, but you can't deny it doesn't have an iconic history.

Not a recent trend, either.



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What's left of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)



Ultra-processed foods were invented by the food industry to addict kids.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/XcKVAJpiiQaSXtDJ/




The Tin Drum (Volker Schlöndorff, 1979)
https://ok.ru/video/1757396994758

Regarded as one of the best movies of all time, and it's easy to see why.

Based on the book by Gunter Grass - The Danzig Trilogy (Tin Drum, Cat and Mouse, Dog Years) which also has a book that studies the series.


Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946)
https://ok.ru/video/3452355480262

[Catoptric]

One of the comments:

Spoiler

Show

charlespaugh
2 months ago (edited)
Several years ago, I had the opportunity to visit an Amazon warehouse in Portland, Oregon USA. Within minutes, I noticed no fire alarm pull handles. I asked about it, and I was told there were two in the lobby, the only two in the entire warehouse. I asked what employees were supposed to do if they noticed a fire, and I was told that they would need to “find” someone with a radio to notify safety so that team could engage an alarm. I contacted the Oregon state fire marshal who told me these stations should be located throughout the warehouse by law. I asked them how the building passed inspection. That office told me it was up to the “local” fire department to perform that inspection. I contacted the Troutdale, OR fire department and asked them about it. They told me that they were told to ignore the absence of the alarm stations because Amazon had been granted a waiver. After multiple phone calls, no waiver could be located, and no government agency wanted to discuss it further. There are now 9+ warehouse centers in the Portland area, and they all lack fire alarm alert stations. Amazon gets away with breaking safety rules with impunity. Government agencies and local press are afraid to take Amazon to task. It’s dangerous and irresponsible.

Think about the subsidies and neglect to cities they have warehouses in, and you will find a 3rd world dystopia in the making.

OceanGate Is Worse Than You Thought



I found a complete (with extra pieces) decent condition box of Settlers of Catan.


I had noticed it prior as it closely aligned with what I like about RPG games, though knew even if I owned it, I wouldn't be able to play it with anyone.

I also found a $200+ headset that works perfectly well, and even had 14 hours of charge on the battery when turning it on. That along with 4 phones (2 of which could be resold, as apart from one with complete power failure, another had a password requiring logging into the connected gmail account even after factory reset -- using Vol Up, Home, and power buttons,) a $180 laserjet printer, and a decent quality scanner that can be used for film negatives (though I have yet to try, since I might need an insert for the film slides to get it to work properly.)

I had some other junk too, such as a lamp with a magnifier that can be turned on from a USB battery bank (which I was needing, since many LED lights strangely won't turn on directly from it, and it has a nice dimmer option, while also being able to be removed from a weighted base and clamped to a desk.)

Also got to try a Nook (Barnes and Noble E-Reader) and like the interface slightly more than Kindle, but find it operates clunky and slow, and no longer has software support (which just seems antiquated.) It also was completely dead and could only charge to 50%, while probably last used in 2017 after being used since 2011 when it was made. I also found out who owned the Nook, and the phones, and found out that their daughter has cystic fibrosis, and that the father (or possibly adopted father, since it seems like the mother never got married or divorced soon after) suffers from Alcoholism judging from the books on the Nook which also had some highlighted texts addressing relationship issues. It seemed like they stopped using the Nook in 2017 since their emails stopped, but the emails were connected to the mother in 2017, where she seemed to read books while selling merchandise for Bioworld at Market Hall (basically the Dallas version of the World Trade Center,) but then it seemed like the daughter had some kiddy crap books, and the "father" sponsered some cystic fibrosis treatment gofundme, and possibly moved in with her at some point, since one of the profile images on their phones had what resembled a relationship, and the Nook was registered to the guy, while using her email account profile.)

Most of the stuff was something circa 2017, so they might have just been emptying some storage space (possibly after they moved in together.) One of the phones was a Huawai phone and seemed to have been used in Guangdong (compatible with T-Mobile, though I wondered if they used a temporary sim card while on a possible business trip (though it seemed unconnected to Bioworld Merchandise; and incidentally I did find a Rick and Morty Pickle Rick writing pen, shaped in an actual pickle size, and unopened.)





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Today's trash discovery:

Aside from Bollywood films and music from films, I came across a 6 blu ray disc set from a Hindu wedding ceremony (wondering if it was intended to be thrown in the trash?) which strangely also has a collage of the couple, along with a Lamborghini wheel adjacent to the wife (as though two of the guy's favorite possessions?)

I tried finding out more about them, because it was pretty strange (and such a set from a photographer would be pretty expensive to produce. I looked up the company, Zamana and interestingly enough, there is a 1985 film by that name:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302058/

Spoiler

Show

Ravi and Vinod's father is killed by a don, for developing a photo that showcases a crime scene. Ravi, a criminal and Vinod, a cop, decide to exact revenge from their father's killer.

Disc 4 is missing, but I wonder if the set was accidentally handed off to a book reseller who would knowingly trash it (and people will even try to pawn off burnt discs that are obviously not retail.)

Their last name doesn't even show up in the videos, even for the guest registry, and the archive photography doesn't go back to 2013 when they married.

https://www.myshadi.com/category/zamana ... deography/

Judging from some of the recordings, he had family in Nashville, TN and had his Ganesh Puja (prayer to the "elephant god") and must have met up with her in TX. The discs are divided in various categories to give focus on a specific topic. The first disc has him all dressed up in formal Indian garb in his Lamborghini, as though in some Bollywood film being looked upon, with the camera angled up towards a tall building (hence his self-importance?)

It does give an interesting insight into the wedding ceremonies of Indian culture. Aside from the Bride and Groom having their own Puja, the parent's will each have a Santak (Puja, specifically praying for the marriage by the parents.) They all seemed to have Ganesh. Their wedding reception fit into any wedding I've been to (and worked at, as a caterer.)

At some point in disc 5, the reception finally begins and it becomes obvious their last name was Patel (I had guessed it might be this, but it didn't really show much in results online, and the only other option might be Masters--hence I suspected she might be half Indian and slightly resembled hispanic,) but even with their first and last name, far too many with that name exists, that it's the usual needle in a haystack that some people's names have. I'll probably just discard the discs at some point instead of trying to find if anyone wanted to hold onto the discs (a bit weird contacting many of the names on the guests list.


******

One of the Indian movies is 'Barfi!'


Which actually has decent ratings.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/barfi





https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mother_india

A sealed copy is listed for $44 on Ebay.


Another one with an odd name (seems the disc was missing. Another modern movie with a similar title, 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. . .' (“sometimes happiness sometimes sorrow”) was also in the collection, and was 3-hrs of soap opera drama, which for some strange reason reminded me of an Indian advertisement whenever the older dude was on screen. I spent about 2 minutes scrolling through it.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabhi_Kabhie

This movie, Asoka, would have been better if it wasn't turned into a musical; and I can see why Hollywood steered clear of musicals with the progress of the Bollywood movie industry into that direction. Clearly for whatever reason, historical drama films (no matter how highly regarded, such as films by Satyajit Ray,) were converted into musicals and seemed to overtake Bollywood, and not until recent years have things like absurdist action film comedies taken over musicals (as if the absurdist care-free approach to entertainment--if not supplanted by plastic-looking infomercial salesmen/saleswomen for saccharine entertainment,) seems to be the more "economically" rewarding approach to capturing people's interest. I suppose 'The Life of Pi' was more of an International export, but most Americans were reluctant to watch it if they felt they were tribalistic and couldn't empathize with what they might have perceived as Vedic or some other tradition threatening their "Christian" values.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/asoka

Also, if I ever get the opportunity to ask someone if they want to watch 'Avatar,' I can troll them with this one:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/avtaar

Admittedly, some of the stories might be kind of hard to take seriously if not approached from an "entertainment" angle, since movies like Asoka resemble either a manga or an anime like Thundercats (the sword looks awfully familiar) and the movie is based on a Bhagavad Gita central warrior character (named/spelled Ashoka or in this case Asoka.)


Bollywood take on Marvel


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Still Human (Documentary about comparisons of India and social problems like homelessness in N.A.)

[aether]

Cool music video and classic rave song:

Emmanuel Top - Acid Phase

[Madrigal]

Letterkenny. Funny enough.

[Catoptric]

I still think Skinwalker Ranch could be mostly BS, though do believe some aspects of what they talk about should be seriously considered phenomenologically.






Memphis Belle (the movie, but here is the documentary as well) I found a DVD (that in spite of it claiming to be widescreen, is just a cropped square format, whereas the 'Standard' flip side of the disc is just an even more cropped down version. . . And it automatically start in CC English for some weird reason (probably because they assumed anyone watching it was a WW2 veteran?)

First time watching the movie and I recall seeing advertisements for it when it came out (1990,) though never got around to seeing it (I probably would still have glossed over it somehow, despite spending hundreds of hours on rotten tomatoes for films I think are worthwhile getting copies of, and yet somehow after looking at both Sean Astin and Mathew Modines fimographies, as well as noticing the actor for Roses' fiancee in Titanic I still omitted this film, despite it being one of the better war films.) I think it had something to do with casting John Lithgow in a role that wasn't comedy, which made me think the film was something like Police Academy (which is only better in retrospective and never ages well.) Though the film had a kind of a "made for TV" feel to it at times, it had a lot of realism that seemed very authentic and accurate. John Lithgow was well casted but I had already typecast him in my mind (though here he almost seems like Peter Sellers,) the same way I think of Danny Glover as the "good guy cop" in Lethal Weapon, which came as something of a shock when seeing play a bad guy in Witness. Some of the special effects just seemed badly done though such as a bullet or flack hitting one of the crewman, and missing both the bomber and flack jacket, and yet a nice clean exposed wound with a big hole in the undershirt, is nicely visible; a real wound would look nothing like this. Not long after this a German fighter shoots the controls out and causes sparks, and one of the dingbat crews comes up behind the Pilot (Mathew Modine's character) and practically say's something as absurd as "gee, Danny's in bad shape," when judging from the sparks of the cockpit and the panic leading up to the control of it, they probably had a lot bigger issues to worry about than some dude dying in the back of the plane (as though, "let me calmly put this in autopilot and focus on something that really doesn't have any immediate priority given the situation,") but then an oil fire in the engine begins and indifferent to the crew safety they were already diving the plane into low altitude to put the fire out (so stabilizing the patient and the loose crew changing high altitudes without their oxygen masks is probably not something they would be doing, by any measure. . . So this is VERY INNACURATE.) They clearly were filming as though in a studio with a fan blowing calmly on them, which probably required sound-muffling headphones and an intercom system just to communicate.






She is mostly known for her harassment of people at Meijer's grocery store, but she has shown up in numerous other places. (More info on the 'Seen on the Internet' thread)





3 hours of (Heckle)fish guy talking about the computer simulation predicting the end of mankind (collapse as a civilization,) and other theories (akin to Skynet and AI.)




Another 3 hours about India and Mexico setting China up in a conspiracy.

[HighlyIrregular II]

I went through about 10 videos of the President of the Presidential Council of the Transition of the Republic of Haiti spilling a pitcher of water as he drank from it, immediately after asking for respect. So many people don't know how to cut a clip. I think this one has the right amount of lead-in, but it could use some leading commentary:

[Madrigal]

Kaos, but only because it's one of the few tolerable series on Netflix dubbed in Greek.

[aether]

Fallece General en Retiro Humberto Ortega Saavedra

[aether]

Safri Duo - Played-a-live (Live at Dome 18)

[Catoptric]

First thing when being taken is: Lock the doors, call the local cops, and stop being a voyeur.

If a residence is rather exclusive and has bars on the windows and door frames, how the fuck do some random people show up on cue within minutes of meeting someone? It would have made a lot more sense if they actually met the people in question at the specified time, and then took advantage of their vulnerability (usually exploitation of people is opportunism rather than purely impulsive and reckless abandon.)

Also, when it takes as long as a flight to Paris to followup with the crime scene, usually it's helpful to not contaminate the scene location, while taking as long to delay the Police followup (I guess that would make a more boring movie though.)

And when the Police know that an obstruction of traffic has occurred with a stolen Taxi, and multiple people have witnessed a guy pummelling a random dude, why wouldn't they know where to find him right after a man get's chased and then run over by a semitruck? France's Police can't possibly be that bumblingly incompetent.

And I guess random hotels have sleeper cells for covert medical practices for drug detox, to try and make people coherent after being trafficked and forced onto drugs?


It seems the movie is the modern Frank Dux bullshit story, that was based on a fabricated "stolen valour" story of hostage recovery.

What Is True About Kidnapping From The Movie Taken
https://medium.com/kidguard-education-a ... c4d0ab1125

William G. Hillar

Millersville Man Sentenced for Posing as a Retired Army Special Forces Colonel
https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/balti ... es-colonel

Spoiler

Show

Lied for 12 Years About Special Forces and Terrorism Experience to Gain Teaching Employment; Also Fabricated a Story of His Daughter’s Kidnapping and Murder by Sex Traffickers

It seems people were a bit slow on the uptake for about 12 years (I wonder if he pushed his daughter into drug addiction to cope with his crippling small man syndrome?) It still made for a decent movie, but it had no context for the continuity and was just retarded in several ways. It almost does mimic what is known about people like Jeffrey Epstein and the "elite" wealthy fucks like Trump, et al. without the blackmail bit (which would have been an interesting take on a movie using trafficked and government shadow agencies.)