10/20/18

 

i'm thankful for bad times at the el royale, which was a fascinating simulacra of a tarantino movie, title cards and all. i'm thankful, though, to recognize that it lacked the frisson, the cinematic edge play, the bit of extra that tarantino is always doing on top of the dollops of genre, for better or worse, which made it feel strange, toothless, even as the guns all went off. i'm thankful to think that it felt more like popcorn, which is both satisfying (especially with butter and salt) and at the same time ultimately empty, a kernel of something inflated with hot air.

 

i'm thankful, though, that that was exactly what i wanted from it, and from a saturday afternoon, and so i was mostly pretty happy. i'm thankful for the beautiful acapella singing of motown songs by cynthia erivo and am thankful for the diegetic jukebox and am thankful for chris hemsworth as a pastiche of charles manson. i'm thankful for john hamm with a performance truly living up to his last name.

 

i'm thankful that when miso and i went outside after dinner, a strong fall wind was blowing the last green leaves out of the trees across the street, making the grass of the yards a rough carpet. i'm thankful to record video of the sky, since it is never again going to be the same as it was right then (though i guess that's true of everything on some level).