Train Dreams. Great Big American Novel/ Terence Malick territory but at short story volume, with one man dwarfed and crushed but also lifted up by the scale and the possibility of the place. Joel Edgerton handsome and emoting but not too much. Cracking Lumberjacking gear too.
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I’m listening to TMS rewound when I wake up, usually after 7am. Even though i’m not on any social media it’s been difficult to avoid spoilers. That’s why I ignored your message first thing this morning 
I’m still listening but I think you may have been correct! 
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Not even a hint of recognition from McCullum about the time and money spent to go and see that dismal display. They’ve become a hard to team to like, so arrogant and smug.
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I don’t mind their attitude at all. I’m sure it’s based on evidence from sports psychology. I accept it as just that and it doesn’t wind me up like it seems to most people.
I wouldn’t say it was a dismal performance either. Listening yesterday and then watching the highlights last night, I thought the England bowling was the best i’ve seen. Absolutely frightening.
Any criticism of the way this current team play should be tempered by the performance of Travis Head and his 70 odd ball century. It worked for him.
I’m not as partisan as all that and find the Australian team as fascinating and enjoyable to watch as England.
I’m not sure if this is stoked (no pun intended) by the comments below the line on any report regarding either the men’s or women’s cricket teams. If this forum is the loveliest place on the www then the comments section on the BBC sports app is a cesspool.
I will admit to being a bit peeved at no cricket for the next two days though.
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Its the worst batting performance I’ve seen in some time by England, to have 105 lead with 9 wickets in hand then getting beat inside 2 days is astonishing. They are failing the big tests as a team over and over again and wasting some superb talent with their refusal to adapt to the game situation they are involved in.
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New Wong Kar Wai TV (!), Blossoms Shanghai, hitting The Criterion Channel Monday. Blocked some time to watch at least some of the thirty episode series over Thanksgiving. Not sure about streaming in other countries.
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Annoying we can’t get Criterion here in the UK.
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Suicidal batting from England when they were in a strong position. I’m a fan of the positive, attacking cricket that “Baz Ball” is, but you have to know when to throttle back and consolidate.
A side with Ben Stokes as captain can never be written off, but i’m getting some quite unpleasant four/five nil vibes here.
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I’m shooting from the hip here so forgive any clumsiness or bullshit😂
How about you were asked to DJ at a party but you weren’t allowed to play the records you wanted in the way you wanted to. You were guaranteed a full dancefloor and everyone would leave happy but you played shit music that you didn’t enjoy.
Now, apply that rule to sport where you go out solely with the aim of winning even if it means you play in a way you don’t enjoy.
Now apply the same rule to life, you can have all the money if you do a job that’s shit and you don’t enjoy but the world (as we know it) will see you as a total winner.
I find the idea of playing, living on your own terms quite refreshing. Dare I say revolutionary?
Just a thought.
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That’s a Denis Johnson novel. My favourite US author. I had no idea it had been made into a film.
I will look forward to its existential crushing bleakness. Thanks.
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Funnily enough we’ve been watching Mr Inbetween on Disney. Great show.
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A mate who i go the match with is down there for first 2 tests, after the capitulation they went to a casino to watch our lads get stuffed by notts forest and then the Aussie side came in celebrating like mad. Not his best day.
They dont enjoy getting beat at the big moments but the money is a salve and it keeps repeating. A team built on vibes isnt serious.
Take care watching it on sunday night. As you know, it wont send you whistling into the week…
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An excellent show and not a man to mess with, as the old song goes. (him, not me.).
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Just saw this - some good bits but do you feel it was a bit smoothed over? The Denis Johnson novella is jarring from the first sentence when Grainier witnesses the attempted killing of the Chinese worker and does nothing. Netflix seems to have this glossy aesthetic that spills over into everything on there now…
visually it had that digital look and a lot of cleanliness and quick cuts - no time to engage or be immersed in one particular moment. And that is, I think, the point of the original story, that he is just travelling through and unable to process or engage with what is happening to him, until, terrifyingly, the moment of revelation towards the end. That felt a bit forced, maybe down to the narrator? And, comparison is the thief of joy, but similar settings and themes in the hands of Cormac McCarthy, Terence Malick, Kelly Reichardt, Debra Granik et al, are much bleaker but more fulfilling, and look better - not as pretty, but better.
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Great way to put it, I’m aligned. 
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I’m loving Pluribus. Seems there’s a lot of people who aren’t, if Reddit and Threads comments are anything to go by. However, many of their reasons are flimsy to say the least - “too slow” or “the main character is unlikeable” etc. I think people like shitting on a popular creator like Vince Gilligan just for the sake of it.
My response to one comment was "If Twin Peaks came out in 2025, you’d all say it was ‘confusing’ and ‘too weird’ and ‘I can’t follow it while I doomscroll on my phone at the same time it’s on’. "
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Quentin Crisp on 80s Public Access TV ‘Beyond Vaudeville’. Annoying and almost unwatchable but with some kind of logic and beauty of its own. maybe that was the point.
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