Been a while since I’ve seen this. Not my fave Wes Anderson, but it might be his most impressive from a world-building perspective? Maybe outside of Grand Budapest.

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Looking at my Letterboxd average review scores and it seems like I have a four-star wall:

This isn’t as prominent as some I’ve seen. But it did get me thinking about why this is. Most importantly– I don’t like watching bad movies. To borrow words from a famous food critic, if I know I won’t like a movie, “I don’t swallow.” That reasonably skews my movie selection in the direction of things I’ll rate higher (i.e. above three-ish stars). I also have very limited time as a dad, so I need to choose wisely.

That being said, I tend to root for movies. Even when they’re uneven, I will rate them well if I enjoyed myself. Two and two-and-a-half feel reserved for movies I genuinely didn’t enjoy, but were still watchable, in a sort of “this sure is a movie” sense. Anything below that is borderline unwatchable. Most movies I watch are “meh” or better, so three and up it is.

(On the other side of the wall, four and half is reserved for movies I think are great and some of my favorites. A full five indicates a movie I struggle to find fault with. Obviously pretty rare.)

In January I made a list of goals for this year. Now that we’re in May, it’s a good time to check up on them:

Downsize ✅

We moved (ironically into a larger place) and in the process found a boatload of stuff to get rid of. Having a garage sale later this month so I’m considering this checked!

Read a book each month ❌

Failed. Missed February and April. But I’m not going to let that stop me from reading the rest of this year. That’s kind of the benefit of an early streak-breaker. It means you no longer have the pressure to uphold the streak, and you can focus on the enjoyment of it instead! The next book I’m starting is Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. Finding it hard to break into the worldbuilding of it. Sometimes it’s tough to hold it all in my brain.

Brush up on a language ❌

No way. I have not touched a single language learning thing this year. Not happening, sorry past me. Maybe next year.

Establish a workout rhythm ✅(?)

Yes kinda, I’m biking to work maybe half the time so I guess that’s something of a rhythm. Would love to do something for my upper body cause I’m a puny weakling. We’ll see. It’s hard to fit gyms into my life right now, so I guess I need to figure out at-home workouts. Tips recommended.

Use public transit ✅(?)

On rainy or exceptionally windy days when I have the time I’ll take the bus. It’s about twice as long as on bike, but it’s not so bad. Gives me more opportunity to read. Santa Cruz is putting in a bus priority lane on the highway so there’s a good chance my bus ride frequency will increase.

Unlock the power of Costco ❌

Not yet. Still studying the ancient texts.

Well I guess a 50% success rate is alright. It’s ok to make goals and then later realize they aren’t priorities anymore. That’s part of life!

Earlier this year, I told Anna that I had the desire to watch some sort of sport. I’ve watched football and baseball with my parents growing up, but I’ve never really made it my own. It would be nice to cheer on a team for the first time in years, in my own understated way. I settled on baseball and soccer and picked teams:

• The SF Giants seemed to be doing pretty well this off-season in terms of signings, so I decided to start watching them more this season. Since then, they have had a pretty terrible record (the Oakland A’s are doing better - which is saying something) and have lost some very embarrassing games (17-1 loss to the D-Backs comes to mind).
• I decided to follow Tottenham Hotspur on the advice of a friend. The first game I watched, sort of still on the fence, they won handily. I love the coach, and seemed like a neat culture, so I decided to go all in on supporting them. Immediately following, they’ve had their worst losing streak in nearly 20 years. Come on you spurs…
• And I’ve been following Bay FC, because they’re the new kids on the block in the NWSL, have some world class players, and it’s exciting to have a soccer team in the bay that actually seems competitive (looking at you, Earthquakes). Well… maybe seemed competitive. They’ve now lost six of their eight games played thus far.

So I guess if you have a sports team you love, you ought to start pitching me on becoming a fan of your rivals.

This was a lot funnier than I expected it to be. Hits hard still. While watching, I could feel the Hawaiian humidity on my skin and smell the sweet air… paired with the slack key guitar soundtrack, mmm, it captures it so well.

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Love this genre of screwball comedy where things just keep getting crazier. Feels like it followed in the steps of Bringing Up Baby or His Girl Friday with a nice dark Scorsese twist. The camera just never stops moving, which I love and am seriously impressed by. So many laugh out loud funny moments in this. Watch it with someone who has a good dry sense of humor.

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I’m sorry there’s no way that woman was nine months pregnant.

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