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Andrei Rublev - Andrei Tarkovsky
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 1030
This was an interesting, 3 hour watch by the Soviet director Andre Tarkovsky it's a semi-biographic film on the life of Andrei Rublev, famous Russian Icon Painter of the early 15th Century.
Slowly shot, black and white (1966), a minimal of dialogue, - the background dialogue, when it's happening, isn't translated, but strangely moving.
A note, it's 3 hours long, and - in being filmed and set in a different era, Tarkovsky set a cow on fire, clubbed a dog to death and shoved a horse off a stairwell then stabbed it - not a film the SPCA would endorse, and in parts difficult to watch. Reminding me of "The Holy Mountain", where Jodorowsky killed hundreds of rabbits and blew up hundreds of toads. Unnecessarily cruel, and for people that seem to have a fair bit of Spiritual - ?? - well, it's a hard reconcile.
Then, given the time it was set in - early 1400's, when entire villages were razed by Tartars, raped and pillaged, where the King or Prince might as well decide to do the same, when the Plague was passing through Europe and killing 1/2, 2/3 people, comparing the age where death was of no consequence and seldom grieved, of no account, compared to now, where every war - Gaza - Israel, Rawanda, Ukraine, every plague - by comparison - is inconsequential and every life is held of immense value (unless you're killed by the cops). A - to the Western Mind - almost inconceivable point of view.
This is not to excuse the current state of affairs, but we've never had it so good, and it will be a long, long time before ever we have it so again.
Anyways, read up on it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Rublev_(film)
The Holdovers
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 792
Which was a quiet, understated film, about a group of students "held over" at their boarding school. A charming, melancholy, Character-driven film.
Good. Not, as reviewed, "Great", but better than a few others I've seen.
Great Kentucky Hoard
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Found
- Hits: 692
I don't know how I never heard of this. To summarize, sometime in the 2020's a farmer stumbled across a hoard of 700+ buried gold coins in his field.
Gold Dollars, $5 and $10 Pieces, with a value over a Million Dollars.
Links: Wikipedia on the Great Kentucky Hoard, The National Post, LiveScience.Com - which is of interest as it mentions a few other unrecovered hoards of even greater Value:
Many wealthy Kentuckians are rumored to have buried huge sums of money to prevent it from being stolen by the Confederacy. James Langstaff left a letter saying he had buried $20,000 in coins on his property in Paducah, William Pettit buried $80,000 worth of gold coins near Lexington, and Confederate soldiers quarantined for measles reportedly stole payroll and hid it in a cave in Cumberland Gap. None of these caches has ever been recovered.
Of interest as well, other hoards in North America - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hoards_in_North_America, and be sure to follow links to the Baltimore Gold Hoard and the Castine Hoard.
And, finally, a post on other rumored undiscovered hoards of Kentucky: https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/, which has me looking up all sorts of things on Google Maps...
NY Eve 2023
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 1006
This was the event of the year.
I mean, there are others, but in the summer, for the winter there's nothing that comes close.
The boy, he's brought his girlfriend down from Calgary for this, NY in Nelson, so it's important to get the party right.
The boy, doing well, wearing an admirable offensive shirt (I admire it, apparently one of mine...) and a fine vintage leather coat (as well, as it turns out, one of mine), a great watch (....you knew it was mine)...
Anyways, split up for the day, I got to rest up, clean up the apartment, it's going to be a big night. We meet up, he's done the conventional NY at a popular nightclub, now on to the private party, the "Event", I'd told him he didn't need the nightclub, comparatively a conservative crowd, but he'd wanted to hit all the bases...
Anyways, the Party, a private event, kept on the down-low, a large space booked for the party, perhaps 300 people in attendance. The theme was kink/sexy, and while I just go with "well dressed" a surprising number of young ladies brought out the old leather body harnesses...and I gotta say, there's probably more leashes here than at the Calgary SPCA....
Standing beside someone, a short couple, proper wood trolls, and then I recognize her, she's one of my "Facebook Friends" whom I add when I get drunk and recognize 3 friends in common. While Facebook friends - for the most part - don't even count as acquaintances, but this, seeing her in real life...well, never mind, I rarely run into these people in real life...
The boy, his girlfriend, they're impressed, this town parties well above it's weight, the music's good and better, everyone is friendly, there's the poly couples out searching for the third wheel, one girl showing me her "purse" filled with fucking dinosaurs, stacked 3 deep, yes, very cute, clever, I'm not a dinosaur, this Poly thing, I mean, if you don't want to fuck your girlfriend what makes you think I want to...
I make it until 3:00, the boy and his girlfriend hang on, but really, enough is enough, it's the best NY Eve Party in Town, probably for 1000 Miles, but I have to be somewhat recombobulated for the morning...
And so passes NY Eve 2023.
2024, still no snow on the ground, more than half the province under severe drought, 2024 is going to be a hell of a year...
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